Littleton, CO - There is a continuing debate online and in the hallowed halls of education regarding the appropriateness of finger counting or counting by ones beyond the early primary grades. Some area schools even teach a number of variations on finger counting including Chisanbop, Kabukistar, Touchpoints, Tally marks, the “Nines Trick” for multiplying 9 and others. However, most of the students we encounter at our center who count by ones typically use either their fingers, counting one-by-one until they reach an answer, or they use tally marks either drawn on their scratch paper or seen visually in their heads.
The challenges with using these one-by-one methods are myriad. Kids get lost in their counting and their answers are incorrect. A clue that a child is counting one-by-one is when their answers are commonly off by one. It can be time consuming and tedious especially when working with larger numbers or bigger problems. Again, one clue your child may be counting one-by-one is that it takes them a relatively long time, 3 seconds or more, to answer a fairly simple equation such as 13-8. It takes a lot of focus to stay on track when counting one-by-one so they get off in their calculations. Finally, it can be embarrassing to be only 6th grader or 9th grader using your fingers to solve math problems in school.
The challenges with using some of the more sophisticated methods include the need to learn or memorize the method and the values assigned to each finger, confusion with how the fingers should be viewed or placed resulting in inaccuracy, and again, possible embarrassment when the student gets into high school and higher grades.
There is nothing inherently wrong with finger counting. Counting by ones is one of the first tools we acquire in mathematics. It is definitely appropriate when one is first learning about numbers and how numbers relate to each other. However, continuing to use primarily, or only, counting by ones beyond the early primary years in school, is like building a dog house with just a hammer and nails. It can be done, however, if one has screws, a drill, screwdrivers, a saw, a level and other tools in their toolbox, the dog house will be much stronger and it can be built more efficiently.
Why is efficiency in math important? There are many reasons and at Mathnasium of Littleton we typically focus on two of them. The first is student self confidence and esteem. When children start to develop numerical fluency - which for us at Mathnasium means being able to count from any number, by any number, to any number - their confidence begins to soar. When they answer a question like what is 7+8+9 during their initial assessment using finger counting, they often end their answer with a question mark such as in “23?” or “24?” looking to their assessor for confirmation of correctness. However, when they have other tools at their disposal such as doubles +/- 1 and adding to 10 first, they are much more confident in their answer and can say “I know that 7+7 is 14 so 7+8 has to be one more so it is 15 then if I added 10 to 15 I would get 25 and taking away 1 I have 24. The answer is 24.” There is no hesitation or question in their voice.
Furthermore, when children get into high school and have to take standardized tests such as the ACT or SAT test, the more efficiently they can answer problems the higher their score will be, simply by the fact that they will complete more questions. These tests are designed to have more problems than can reasonably be completed unless the test taker is efficient at answering the questions.
With the more complex methods, our thought is if they are already having to memorize or learn meanings and values with the technique, why not apply that effort to memorizing the fundamental addition facts up to 10, their doubles facts, the complements of 10 and how to decompose or break apart single digit numbers? Once they have these fundamental skills mastered, a whole world of mathematical possibilities begins to open up for them.
If you are concerned about your child’s math skills and/or want to know if they have number sense and numerical fluency, why not call our center at 303-979-9077 and schedule a no risk assessment to find out? There are no up front fees for this assessment. The cost is included as part of your registration fee should you decide to join our center.
For more information on finger counting, check out these articles.
http://www.mathsinsider.com/no-no-no-no-dont-let-your-child-finger-count/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3225925/
http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2012/jun/26/count-fingers-brain
