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Description: Prior work indicates that children have an untrained ability to approximately calculate using their Approximate Number System (ANS). For example, children can mentally double or halve a large array of discrete objects. Here, we ask whether children can perform a true multiplication operation, flexibly attending to both the multiplier and multiplicand, prior to formal multiplication instruction. We presented 5 to 8 year-old children with non-symbolic (dot arrays) or symbolic (Arabic numerals) multiplicands ranging from 2 to 12, and non-symbolic multipliers ranging from 2 to 8. Children compared the imagined product to a visible comparison quantity. Children performed with above chance accuracy on both non-symbolic and symbolic approximate multiplication, and their performance was dependent on the ratio between the imagined product and the comparison target. Children who could not solve any single-digit symbolic multiplication problems were nevertheless successful on both tasks, indicating children have an intuitive sense of multiplication that emerges independently of formal instruction about symbolic multiplication. Non-symbolic multiplication performance mediated the relation between children’s Weber fraction and symbolic math abilities, suggesting a pathway by which the ANS contributes to children’s emerging symbolic math competence. These findings may inform future educational interventions that allow children to utilize their basic arithmetic intuition as a scaffold to facilitate symbolic math learning.