Counting on fingers is ancient and universal. Yet many parents have been told it is babyish or should be stopped. Researchers have looked closely at the connection between fingers and number, and the picture is reassuring.
Fingers and number in the brain
In a brain-imaging study, Berteletti and Booth found that when children aged eight to thirteen solved subtraction problems in their heads, finger motor areas of the brain were active, and larger subtraction problems brought more activity in finger-sensing areas, even though they were not moving their hands.
Multiplication did not show the same finger-motor activity. Fingers seem to remain part of how the brain represents number.
Finger awareness can be practised
Gracia-Bafalluy and Noël reported that a small group of five- and six-year-olds with weaker “finger gnosis”, the ability to tell which finger has been touched without looking, did better on some number tasks after finger-differentiation training, though other researchers have questioned the findings.
Jay and Betenson later found that young children improved their quantitative skills only when finger exercises were combined with number games.
These are small studies, so they are a reason for interest, not a guarantee. But none suggests that fingers hold children back.
Finger games to try
- Finger rhymes and songs that move one finger at a time.
- Show me five. Now show me five a different way (three and two, four and one).
- Quick flash: hold up some fingers briefly. How many did you see?
- Gently touch a finger while their eyes are closed. Which one was it?
- Ten fingers as a ready-made “ten frame”: how many more to make ten?
When fingers fade
As children become confident with number facts, most naturally use their fingers less, though many adults still reach for them with trickier sums. There is no need to ban them. Encourage flexible thinking alongside: “Can you see it in your head too?”