Angela, I’m so sorry I didn’t see this sooner.  The answer usually is to go back to visuals & manipulatives, which their fingers can be manipulatives.  If they are still counting one-by-one, then do counting but also Subitizing to help them get past counting one-by-one.  A kid who counts out 3 on one hand then 4 on the other hand and sees that they have 3+3 plus an extra 1 is different than a kids who counts all their fingers once they counted 3 & 4 on their fingers.  So “fingers” aren’t bad, it’s just how they are using them.

If they are able to count and they’ve done subitizing, I’d then be working on the 4 relationships.  Because that’s what’s going to get them past the one-by-one counting to solve problems.  They need to see how numbers are related and then use those relationships when solving problems.  For example if they have 7 in one ten frame and 8 in another ten frame do they count all the items or do they see that they could use some relationships to figure out the total?  If they aren’t seeing & using relationships then that’s where I’d start with them. And typically you want to do activities that focus on building one of the relationships (Spatial, 1 & 2 More/Less, Benchmarks, and Part-Part-Whole) however during most of the activities other relationships will get worked on as well.  They all work together to create a sense of number.

>>>>>Christina