Tapping the math genes

Just after my son was born in November 2003, I happened to read three interesting books on mathematics. #1. The Math Gene: Why everyone has it, but most people don't use it by Keith Devlin; #2. The Mathematical Brain by Brian Butterworth. And there was another book I came across (I managed to read an abstract and browse through a borrowed copy): #3 The Number Sense: How the Mind Creates Mathematics. All three books tried to explore the theme: how the human mind came to -- and continues to-- perform mathematical reasoning. The authors tried to answer the questionsn were: Are we born with an innate number sense? Can new-born babies do mathematics on their own? Is math the result of nature or nurture? Are there things I can do to improve my mathematical skills?
Although I bumped into this area while researching on my stories in KnowHOW, the science supplement of The Telegraph (as a science writer) I started looking at our 'number sense' from a personal level. I wondered if my yet-to-be-born baby would arrive with a robust number sense. Personally I had been a disaster in math in school but later discovered recreational aspect of the 'queen of science/natural philosophy'. These books, however, dispelled all doubts about our so-called math geniuses. The authors showed quite convincingly that math is an innate sense which can be nurtured--just like a language--in children.