Performance to produce numerals with fingers contributes to mathematics achievement in children

Resumen

The last few years have seen increasing interest in exploring how finger use influences children’s math achievement. Some studies have focused on therelevance of gnosis, whereas other studies have explored the role of finger representations. However, no study has investigated children’s ability to representnumerals with finger configurations. This is relevant as finger use is relatively frequent among children who have barely received formal math instruction. Theaim of this study is to explore whether kindergarteners’ skills to represent numerals with finger configurations predict mathematics achievement. Children wereblindfolded, and asked to represent numerals with their fingers. Results show that the ability to represent numerals with finger configurations influencesmathematics achievement beyond the effect of domain general predictors. This finding emphasizes the relevance of finger use at the beginning of formal school,and supports research showing that fingers provide a natural scaffold for mathematics.