Abstract
Even though mathematics is considered one of the most abstract domains of human cognition, recent work on embodiment of mathematics has shown that we make sense of mathematical concepts by using insights and skills acquired through bodily activity. Fingers play a significant role in many of these bodily interactions. Finger-based interactions provide the preliminary access to foundational mathematical constructs, such as one-to-one correspondence and whole-part relations in early development. In addition, children across cultures use their fingers to count and do simple arithmetic. There is also some evidence for an association between children’s ability to individuate fingers (finger gnosis) and mathematics ability. Paralleling these behavioral findings, there is accumulating evidence for overlapping neural correlates and functional associations between fingers and number processing. In this paper, we synthesize mathematics education and neurocognitive research on the relevance of fingers for early mathematics development. We delve into issues such as how the early multimodal (tactile, motor, visuospatial) experiences with fingers might be the gateway for later numerical skills, how finger gnosis, finger counting habits, and numerical abilities are associated at the behavioral and neural levels, and implications for mathematics education. We argue that, taken together, the two bodies of research can better inform how different finger skills support the development of numerical competencies, and we provide a road map for future interdisciplinary research that can yield to development of diagnostic tools and interventions for preschool and primary grade classrooms.
Highlights
Even though mathematics is considered one of the most abstract domains of human cognition, recent work on embodiment of mathematics has shown that we make sense of mathematical concepts by using insights and skills acquired through bodily activity
Given the deep relation between fingers and numbers, it is crucial to understand how and why finger counting and other finger-based interactions with numbers relate to numerical development, and how we can develop approaches in mathematics education that can harness the relevance of fingers for numerical development
A recent article in The Atlantic, titled “Why kids should use their fingers in math class,” reports on a tendency in schools towards discouraging finger use in math classrooms, despite research that shows an intricate relation between fingers and early numerical skills, and mathematics educators advocating for use of finger-based strategies early on (Boaler & Chen, 2016)
Summary
Even though mathematics is considered one of the most abstract domains of human cognition, recent work on embodiment of mathematics has shown that we make sense of mathematical concepts by using insights and skills acquired through bodily activity. If the relation between fingers and numbers goes beyond use of finger counting strategies between ages four to eight, and if the finger sensorimotor system grounds and scaffolds the development of numerical skills, we need to reevaluate approaches to finger counting and finger skills ( finger gnosis) in mathematics education.
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