This is kind of hard to explain, but I'm going to try. Feel free to comment questions if what I'm going to say doesn't make sense.
Absolute Value ∞# of spaces away from zero ∞ how far away a number is from zero 1). Draw a number line. 2). Label it from -12 to 0. 3). Count on the number line from -12 to 0 and see how many units to the right you have to go to reach zero. The answer is 12, so that is the absolute value. |-12| = 12