You can count on your fingers: Finger-based intervention improves first-graders' arithmetic learning

Mirjam Frey; Venera Gashaj; Hans-Christoph Nuerk; Korbinian Moeller

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105934

You can count on your fingers: Finger-based intervention improves first-graders' arithmetic learning

J Exp Child Psychol. 2024 May 6:244:105934. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105934. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Mirjam Frey¹, Venera Gashaj², Hans-Christoph Nuerk³, Korbinian Moeller⁴

Affiliations

¹ LEAD Graduate School & Research Network, University of Tübingen, 72072 Tübingen, Germany; Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, 9712 TS Groningen, the Netherlands. Electronic address: m.i.frey@rug.nl.
² Department of Mathematics Education, School of Science, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, UK.
³ LEAD Graduate School & Research Network, University of Tübingen, 72072 Tübingen, Germany; Department of Psychology, University of Tübingen, 72072 Tübingen, Germany.
⁴ LEAD Graduate School & Research Network, University of Tübingen, 72072 Tübingen, Germany; Department of Mathematics Education, School of Science, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, UK.

PMID: 38714154
DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105934

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 (M_age = 6.48 years, SD = 0.35) completed a finger-based training (18 sessions of ∼ 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.

Keywords: Arithmetic learning; Embodiment; Finger training; Finger-based intervention; Finger–number relation; Numerical training.