You can count on your fingers: Finger-based intervention improves first-graders' arithmetic learning.
J Exp Child Psychol
; 244: 105934, 2024 Aug.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38714154
ABSTRACT
The question of whether finger use should be encouraged or discouraged in early mathematics instruction remains a topic of debate. Scientific evidence on this matter is scarce due to the limited number of systematic intervention studies. Accordingly, we conducted an intervention study in which first-graders (Mage = 6.48 years, SD = 0.35) completed a finger-based training (18 sessions of â¼ 30 min each) over the course of the first school year. The training was integrated into standard mathematics instruction in schools and compared with business-as-usual curriculum teaching. At the end of first grade and in a follow-up test 9 months later in second grade, children who received the finger training (n = 119) outperformed the control group (n = 123) in written addition and subtraction. No group differences were observed for number line estimation tasks. These results suggest that finger-based numerical strategies can enhance arithmetic learning, supporting the idea of an embodied representation of numbers, and challenge the prevailing skepticism about finger use in primary mathematics education.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Fingers
/
Learning
/
Mathematics
Limits:
Child
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
En
Journal:
J Exp Child Psychol
/
J. exp. child psychol
/
Journal of experimental child psychology
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Country of publication:
Estados Unidos