If you've taken a young child to a well-child visit recently, you've probably noticed books in the waiting room and questions from the pediatrician about reading aloud at home. That's not accidental — it's the result of formal guidance the American Academy of Pediatrics developed to make early literacy promotion a standard part of pediatric care. Now six governors, including Colorado's Jared Polis, want the AAP to do the same thing for math.

On July 23, 2026, the governors sent a letter to the AAP urging the organization to develop clinical guidance on early numeracy — guidance modeled on the existing literacy program and designed to make math a routine topic at well-child checkups for young children.

Why Early Math Skills Matter

The research behind this push is consistent across a large body of studies. A child's math skills at kindergarten entry are among the strongest predictors of long-term academic success — and in some analyses, early math skills predict later academic performance even more reliably than early reading skills. The gap between children who arrive at kindergarten with solid number sense and those who don't is one of the most persistent and difficult to close once formal schooling has begun.

Number sense — the intuitive understanding of quantities, counting, and simple relationships between numbers — develops in the years before formal school instruction. It's built through everyday activities: counting objects, sorting by size or color, playing games that involve dice or numbered cards, noticing patterns in daily routines. These aren't formal academic exercises. They're the kind of interactions that naturally happen in households where math is present in the environment.

What COS Families Can Do Now

The AAP hasn't issued a formal response to the governors' letter, and any updated clinical guidance would take time to develop and implement. But the research the governors are citing doesn't require a policy change to act on.

The simplest version of what they're describing: games that involve numbers, counting, and quantity comparison are effective. Dice games, card games that use number recognition (War is a perennial example), board games with numbered spaces, and counting games during everyday routines all build the number sense that researchers associate with kindergarten readiness and long-term math performance.

With Falcon School District 49 starting school on Monday, August 3, COS families with D49 kids have a particularly timely frame for this: the weekend is a natural opportunity for one counting game before the school year begins.

At your child's next well-child visit, you can also ask the pediatrician directly about early math milestones — what to expect at different ages and what activities support number sense development. Whether or not the AAP formally updates its guidance, pediatricians are a reliable source for age-appropriate developmental information.

What's Next

The Collaborative for Student Success and the signatory governors are waiting for a response from the AAP. If the AAP moves forward with developing early numeracy guidance, it would likely go through the organization's standard clinical review process — a timeline measured in months to years, not days. In the meantime, the evidence base the governors are citing is already available to families and pediatricians. The practical steps don't require waiting for policy to catch up.