Reader’s Digest International — August 2017

68 | August• 2017

PHOTO: WALKER AND WALKER/GETTY IMAGES

IF YOU WERElike most kids, your

mother told you there were three no-

noes when it came to your fingers:

Don’t put them in a power point,

don’t stick them up your nose (at least

not in public), and don’t use them

when you’re counting. The first two

laws of finger dynamics are as true

as ever. But experts in education and

cognition now believe that using your

fingers to do maths is not only a per-

fectly good idea but may even help

children become superior students.

It certainly makes sense. When chil-

dren count on their fingers, they take

an abstract concept – mathematics –

and translate it into the most basic,

tangible form. In fact, neurobiologists

believe that the brain is hard-wired to

‘see’ a representation of our fingers

even when we aren’t literally count-

ing on them.

There is a section of the brain,

called the somatosensory finger

Educators say

that kids who

do maths on

their hands are

the opposite

of stupid

Let Your

Fingers Do

the Counting BY MARC PEYSER

WHO KNEW?