The number book was written, illustrated, and specifically designed to emphasize 3 primary targets:
If it is obvious that the Chit-Chat Kids™ numbers version of the series targets speech, it is perhaps less obvious that the book was designed to teach the number concept as a representative symbol system as well as to teach the concept of counting. The symbols that young children most frequently encounter to represent quantity are the cardinal numbers (one, two, three, four), fingers and dots. In the number book, number symbols were addressed by providing each number in a variety of ways via the cardinal number (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), universal hand signs for the number as well as the number of dots on a single die or on two dice. Counting was addressed throughout the book by the steadily increasing number of balloons. Only a single Chit-Chat Kids™ character, in this case "Chit", was used as the story model for counting the balloons. This was done for two reasons:
First, the single character Chit was used to maintain the simple story line of the child rising off of the ground as he adds more balloons to his count or collection. Changing the character would distract the child from the ever increasing number of balloons.
Second, Chit was used to direct and maintain the child's attention on participating in one of the three primary goals, namely saying the numbers, learning the numbers, and counting out the numbers (for example, spaces or objects, in this case, the balloons).