Abstract
The role of finger usage upon learning arith-metic has received increasing interest from various disciplines. In this opinion paper, we would like to emphasize that finger usage in calculation is not a unitary phenomenon. Rather, we propose two different types of finger usage: First, in many countries and independent of the number system in use, typically developing children use fingers as important transitory (and intuitive) tools to represent small quantities ( Butterworth, 1999; Bender and Beller, 2011). According to Di Luca and Pesenti (2011) , finger count-ing habits are needed to build, acquire, and access mental number representations, the building blocks for semantic number knowledge. Second, developmentally inap-propriate finger usage of children with math difficulties (MD) reflects their persistent need to apply back-up strategies to compen-sate for deficient or lacking number repre-sentations (e.g., Brissaud, 1992; Kaufmann, 2002; Wright et al., 2002). Here, we will focus on the second type of finger usage (i.e., persistent finger usage in individuals with MD) and we argue that (a) finger usage in arithmetic is not restricted to children; and (b) finger-based calculation strategies utilized by adults with MD reflect immature calculation strategies that are comparable to those displayed by affected children.
Highlights
The role of finger usage upon learning arithmetic has received increasing interest from various disciplines
RM’s performance for single-digit number facts was highly deficient albeit very accurate. Her solution strategies were highly unusual for an adult: Across all three operations, RM used procedural strategies (PS) considerably more often than direct fact retrieval (FR; Table 1)
Synopsis To summarize, we argue that (i) finger usage in calculation is not restricted to children; and (ii) the qualitative analysis of finger use and its function may provide important indirect insights into the organization of number fact representations
Summary
The role of finger usage upon learning arithmetic has received increasing interest from various disciplines. Many children with MD find it hard to store and/or retrieve number facts, despite average non-numerical memory and intact procedural arithmetic skills (for a respective single case study, see Kaufmann, 2002). RM’s performance for single-digit number facts was highly deficient albeit very accurate (addition 100%, subtraction 100%, multiplication 99% correct).
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