Overview
- Researchers tracked about 200–211 children in Switzerland from roughly ages 4.5 to 7.5, filming repeated addition tasks to document calculation strategies.
- Finger use peaked around 5.5–6 years; by 7.5, 43% were former users, 50% still used fingers, and 7% had never used them.
- Children who counted on fingers in preschool and later shifted to mental methods outperformed both persistent users and never-users.
- Late adopters of finger strategies performed worse than former users, and children who never used fingers showed the weakest results.
- The peer-reviewed results in Developmental Psychology build on prior work showing taught finger counting boosts kindergarten math, and the authors note reliance beyond about eight years may signal difficulties.