Should my child still use their fingers for maths?
Safety in Numbers: For Parents of Children with Maths DifficultiesShow Notes
If your child still uses their fingers to work out maths, you may have wondered whether they should have grown out of it by now.
In this episode, Alice explains why the important question is not simply whether a child uses their fingers, but how they are using them.
There is a big difference between counting fingers one by one and using fingers to recognise and combine amounts. Seeing one whole hand as five, for example, is the beginning of understanding numbers as being made up of parts rather than as a sequence of individual ones.
Alice explores: why fingers can be an important part of developing number sense the difference between one-by-one counting and recognising amounts instantly what finger gnosis is and why it may matter for maths development why telling a child to stop using their fingers can sometimes make calculation harder what parents should look for before deciding whether finger use is a concern how to help children move from tallying towards seeing numbers as parts how this supports later calculation strategies, including bridging through ten when continued one-by-one finger counting may be worth discussing with school
The episode also looks at the shame some children develop around using their fingers, and why children should not feel they need to hide a strategy that is helping them think. Free companion guide Download the free companion guide for this episode, with practical ideas for helping your child use their fingers to build a stronger understanding of number: https://learn.aedds.co.uk/cgsu
References: Dehaene, S. (1997). The Number Sense: How the Mind Creates Mathematics. Oxford University Press. Butterworth, B. (1999). The Mathematical Brain. Macmillan. Lorenzi, E., Kobylkov, D., & Vallortigara, G. (2025). Is there an innate sense of number in the brain? Cerebral Cortex, 35(2).
In the next episode, Alice looks at why calculation methods can seem to fall apart under pressure and what parents can do to support their child in those moments.
Safety in Numbers is a podcast for parents of children with dyscalculia and maths difficulties.
Website: www.aedds.co.uk Facebook group: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551091072526
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That niggling feeling - the one that doesn't quite go away, even when you can't put your finger on exactly what's wrong - is the starting point for this episode.