Think of children learning to feed themselves. Other times the old tool remains as a handy stand-by. When this happens, sometimes the tools are dropped naturally and new tools are adopted. Sometimes, however, a person’s skills outgrow the usefulness of the tool. Using the fingers to count is a tool and it should not be taken away while the tool is still helpful. After all we only have 10 fingers to use! It is impossible to do difficult calculations such as 1,652 x 21 using the fingers as representative of units of 1. It can be used for counting forward and backward. When Should Children Stop Counting on Their Fingers?įinger counting is a great tool for thinking in single units with quantities under 10. The rest of this article refers to finger counting the way young children use it, with each finger representing 1 unit or counting one by one. If you are interested, search for “abacus finger calculations” or “chisanbop.” These systems require special training and are not what educators typically mean when they refer to finger counting. They are more comparable to using an abacus. These methods are fascinating and they are completely different from using each finger to represent one unit. There are methods of using fingers for doing complex calculations. Internalizing the concept of quantities being comprised of smaller units of quantities, such as 7=5+2 A visual and kinesthetic tool always availableĤ. Jo Boaler, professor of mathematics education at Stanford Graduate School of Education and author of What’s Math Got To Do With It? (2009) and The Elephant in the Classroom (2010) wrote a great article about finger counting The Atlantic in April 2016.ġ. Neuroscientists and educators agree that children who learn to use their fingers as a mathematical tool in the early years will experience more success in math than those who don’t. Fingers are great for young children first learning to count, add, and subtract. People are born with a great counting tool right on their own body.
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