Counting on fine motor skills: links between preschool finger dexterity and numerical skills

Fischer, Ursula; Suggate, Sebastian; Schmirl, Judith; Stoeger, Heidrun

doi:10.1111/desc.12623

Cited by 31 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…For example, speculatively, better finger gnosis is associated with better fine motor skills, which may be necessary for both finger counting and for counting small entities (like rows of counters). A recent study showing an association between fine motor abilities, finger counting skills, and conceptual counting knowledge in pre-school children provides some preliminary evidence in this direction (Fischer, Suggate, Schmirl, & Stoeger, 2017). Finger-based sensorimotor activities may foster an increased ability to individuate the fingers, which in turn may lead to better finger counting.…”

Section: Finger Gnosismentioning

confidence: 98%

You can count on your fingers: The role of fingers in early mathematical development

2018

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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.

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Section: Finger Gnosismentioning

confidence: 98%

You can count on your fingers: The role of fingers in early mathematical development

2018

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“…In sum, former studies have shown that primary school children improve in their arithmetic skills by finger-number training. However, some correlational studies suggest that fingernumber relations might be predictors of later numerical skills and arithmetic already in preschoolers (Fischer et al, 2017;Suggate et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Finger-Based Numerical Training Failed to Improve Arithmetic Skills in Kindergarten Children Beyond Effects of an Active Non-numerical Control Training

2020

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It is widely accepted that finger and number representations are associated: many correlations (including longitudinal ones) between finger gnosis/counting and numerical/arithmetical abilities have been reported. However, such correlations do not necessarily imply causal influence of early finger-number training; even in longitudinal designs, mediating variables may be underlying such correlations. Therefore, we investigated whether there may be a causal relation by means of an extensive experimental intervention in which the impact of finger-number training on initial arithmetic skills was tested in kindergarteners to see whether they benefit from the intervention even before they start formal schooling. The experimental group received 50 training sessions altogether for 10 weeks on a daily basis. A control group received phonology training of a similar duration and intensity. All children improved in the arithmetic tasks. To our surprise and contrary to most accounts in the literature, the improvement shown by the experimental training group was not superior to that of the active control group. We discuss conceptual and methodological reasons why the finger-number training employed in this study did not increase the initial arithmetic skills beyond the unspecific effects of the control intervention.

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“…Again, in the context of other sub-base-5 effects, they attributed these results to embodied finger number representations. What is more, there are several studies suggesting that early finger-related habits are positively related to later arithmetic skill ( Willems, Feeters-Erenay & Depuydt-Bcrte, 1980 ; Fayol, Barrouillet & Marinthe, 1998 ; Noël, 2005 ; Jordan et al, 2008 ; Reeve & Humberstone, 2011 ; Chinello et al, 2013 ; Penner-Wilger & Anderson, 2013 ; Wasner et al, 2016 ; Fischer et al, 2017 ; Soylu, Lester & Newman, 2018 ). Because of this reason, some researchers suggested that FC may be considered as the missing link—in both ontogenetic and historical timescales—between the hardwired “number sense” ( Dehaene, 2011 ) and culture-dependent, and more symbolical, numerical systems ( Butterworth, 2005 ; Andres, Di Luca & Pesenti, 2008 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A large-scale survey on finger counting routines, their temporal stability and flexibility in educated adults

Hohol

Kuniecki

Nuerk

et al. 2018

PeerJ

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A strong link between bodily activity and number processing has been established in recent years. Although numerous observations indicate that adults use finger counting (FC) in various contexts of everyday life for different purposes, existing knowledge of FC routines and their use is still limited. In particular, it remains unknown how stable the (default) FC habits are over time and how flexible they can be. To investigate these questions, 380 Polish participants completed a questionnaire on their FC routines, the stability of these routines, and the context of FC usage, preceded by the request to count on their fingers from 1 to 10. Next, the test–retest stability of FC habits was examined in 84 participants 2 months following the first session. To the best of our knowledge, such a study design has been adopted for the first time. The results indicate that default FC routines of the majority of participants (75%) are relatively stable over time. At the same time, FC routines can flexibly adapt according to the situation (e.g., when holding an object). As regards prevalence, almost all participants, in line with previous findings on Western individuals, declared starting from the closed palm and extending consecutive fingers. Furthermore, we observed relations between FC preferences and handedness (more left-handers start from the left hand) and that actual finger use is still widespread in healthy adults for a variety of activities (the most prevalent uses of FC are listing elements, presenting arguments and plans, and calendar calculations). In sum, the results show the practical relevance of FC in adulthood, the relative stability of preferences over time along with flexible adaptation to a current situation, as well as an association of FC routines with handedness. Taken together our results suggest that FC is the phenomenon, which is moderated or mediated by multiple embodied factors.

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Counting on fine motor skills: links between preschool finger dexterity and numerical skills

Cited by 31 publications

References 71 publications

You can count on your fingers: The role of fingers in early mathematical development

You can count on your fingers: The role of fingers in early mathematical development

A Finger-Based Numerical Training Failed to Improve Arithmetic Skills in Kindergarten Children Beyond Effects of an Active Non-numerical Control Training

A large-scale survey on finger counting routines, their temporal stability and flexibility in educated adults

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