Introduction
Maria reads decimals in the conventional way (digit point digit digit). She has a good idea of the size of 4.26 but doesn't understand the meaning of additional digits (e.g. as in 4.261)

Comments: Text in italics
Interviewer: Text in red
Maria: Text other colour

Interviewer:
Could you please read out the numbers on these cards?

Maria:
Oh point 4

Maria:
nine point seven

Maria:
Oh point one six three

Maria:
Oh point oh two five

Maria:
Oh point nine seven

Maria:
Four point two six

Interviewer:
If your children came home from school and said they had trouble understanding decimals, what could you say to help them? How could you explain four point two six?

Maria:
Well there are 4 whole numbers and then the extras are decimals. It would be about 4 and a quarter...just over.

Interviewer:
Just over?

Maria:
Yes, 25 is a quarter.

Interviewer:
When you were at school, did your teacher use names for the columns after the decimal point?

Maria:
I think that maybe is the tenths and...

Maria:
...that is the umm hundredths, yes hundredths.

Interviewer:
What if I write a one on the end of that number?

Maria:
Well, you only need to look at the first 2 places, like money, so it would be $4 and 26 cents. You can ignore the rest of the decimals if it's too long...umm, I think we called it "rounding". Like when a calculator gives you a long answer but you can ignore the last numbers.

Maria disregards any digits beyond the hundredths column.