Study: Why You Shouldn't Scold Children for Counting on Their Fingers

Through long-term observation, Swiss researchers have determined that children learn arithmetic more successfully when they use their hands.

For this reason, parents and teachers should not forbid children from counting on their fingers, stated the study’s author, Catherine Thevenot from the University of Lausanne. “Children should never be ashamed of using their fingers. They should be proud of using them to solve problems,” the psychologist added.

Last year, Thevenot published a scientific paper focusing on preschool children. Her conclusion was that kindergarteners’ arithmetic skills improve if they are specifically taught to count on their fingers.

At the same time, earlier scientific work had shown that from around the age of seven, children who do not use their fingers tend to perform better than their peers who do. Now, Thevenot and her colleague Marie Krenger have investigated the nature of this phenomenon.

To do this, they tracked the long-term development of around 200 Swiss children from the age of four and a half to seven and a half—this time without teaching them finger counting. It was regularly recorded how they performed addition operations.

Finger Counting Can Be Beneficial

It turned out: the earlier children started using their fingers for help, the more likely they were to become the best at calculations later on. Those who never used their fingers for counting throughout all the years demonstrated the weakest results. The study’s findings were published in the specialist journal “Developmental Psychology.”

The researchers’ observations showed that the higher results in children who manage without finger help from around age seven are explained by the fact that in previous years they mastered arithmetic using their hands and then transitioned to mental calculation. The former “finger-counters” outperformed both those who never used their fingers and those who continued to rely on them.

If children older than eight still need their hands for calculations, it might indicate certain difficulties, Thevenot noted. However, even then, they should not be scolded, she emphasized, because fingers are likely helping them reach the next developmental stage—it just happens a bit later than for other children.

Source: dpa