Compared with the thinking mode of adding and subtracting numbers in mental arithmetic, finger counting is a way of "visual learning" and one of the intuitive teaching AIDS for children to learn mathematics. When a child uses fingers (or other suitable objects) to represent numbers, it does not mean that this child's mathematical ability is worse than that of another child who can do mental arithmetic.

In addition to counting fingers, visual learning AIDS can also count apples, toothpicks, or draw pictures. When children can use these elements to count, it actually builds a bridge in the cultivation of children's mathematical thinking, so that children can better transition from primary thinking (thanks to personal sensory motor experience) to more abstract thinking.

Give a very simple example, and everyone may understand it. If we just ask the child 1+ 1=? This is an abstract concept for children, but if we put it another way, "You have 1 apple now, and your mother gives you another apple. How many apples do you have now?" Then the probability of children answering "two apples" will be much higher. This way of thinking and discussion is actually the embodiment of physical objects as a bridge of mathematical thinking.

The importance of preschool children's visual learning ability has been supported in the teaching system of many countries. For example, the characteristic teaching method in Singapore is called CPA teaching method, which mainly comes from the theory of American educational psychologist and cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner. Studies have pointed out that children's learning often goes through three stages, namely:

Visualization of concrete

P- image visualization

Abstract abstract

Specifically, in the process of our mathematical enlightenment, we use real things as examples. For example, in the following list, children know that "6 equals 6 beans".

Then there is visualization (? Pictorial) stage, with images, squares, columns and other graphic objects or graphic images instead of things themselves, such as the following list, this is actually helping children build a bridge of transition, finger counting is the counting method that children will appear at this stage.

Finally, the abstract learning of numbers is to understand that the original number "6" not only represents a graphic image, but also represents an object, and can also be split and combined.

CPA teaching method emphasizes step by step, and the overall progress of children's learning process is slow, which cannot be achieved overnight. Therefore, the first teaching method must be intuitive and can help children understand. The advantage is that it can reduce the difficulty for children to learn mathematics, so that children will not hate mathematics because of rote memorization.

Therefore, if children are deliberately prevented from using the hand index, the consequences are equally obvious. The research data of Northwestern University 20 16, a famous American private research university, also points out that:

Whether from the behavioral evidence or the research level of neuroscience, it shows that when people receive sensory training about their fingers, it will be more conducive to improving their math scores. On the contrary, when we curb the use of this function, it actually hinders the exercise of brain nerve function and reduces the possibility that children may be smarter.

Finger counting is not everything.

The biggest controversy about finger counting lies in the speed of operation. Admittedly, hand index is not a general calculation method. It is also recognized in the study that if a child reaches the third or fourth grade, it is indeed a sign that his mathematical ability is not mature enough if he mainly uses hand index.

So do children have to learn mental arithmetic and formula operation besides counting their fingers? The answer isno. Based on Bruner's research, Singapore put forward the teaching concept of "model painting", which aims at the training mode of children's basic mathematics education thinking and helps children to think and calculate by turning abstract mathematics into concrete images.