Evaluation des bénéfices d’un dispositif d’entraînement à l’usage des doigts en mathématiques

Abstract

Numerous studies have shown a significant positive relationship between the mental representation of hands in young children and their calculation performance. The literature indicates that certain components of manual motor skills may be critical to the quality of this relationship. The main objective of this study is to measure the benefit of an explicit training and teaching device for finger use in mathematics by measuring the initial motor imitation abilities of young children. A protocol of pretest, training, and post-test type was proposed to 101 children with an average age of 5 years and 3 months. Measurements focused on manual motor skills and arithmetical skills. The 12-week classroom-based device was designed to develop manual motor skills and explicitly teach finger use in mathematics. The results indicate that significant progress was made in arithmetic for the students who benefited from the training. Interestingly this progress is modulated by the children’s initial motor imitation skills. This contribution opens up new research and application perspectives on the relationships between mental motor imagery, fine motor skills, and arithmetic ability.

Age-Related Changes in How 5- to 8-Year-Old Children Use and Execute Finger-Based Strategies in Arithmetic

“…Regarding effects of situational parameters, 5-6-year-old children used finger strategies more often when objects representing numbers to add were the same compared to different objects and when solving number-fact or word-problems than story problems or nonverbal problems (Chao et al, 2000). Finally, five-to eight-year-olds used finger strategies to solve addition problems more often after training (Fuson & Secada, 1986;Ollivier et al, 2020), unless their ability to imitate gesture was immature (Bonneton-Botté et al, 2022).…”