Original title: Counting with or without fingers: The specific role of fingers in improving addition skills in preschoolers
Marie Krenger, Céline Poletti, Marie Létang, Catherine Thevenot · August 2026
Counting on fingers helps young kids learn math, but scientists did not know why. Did using physical fingers matter, or did the boost come from counting practice in general? To find out, researchers tested 190 preschoolers. They split the children into groups. One group practiced counting on their fingers. Another group practiced counting using a number lineA visual tool with numbers marked in order along a line, used to help children count and add., which is a straight line marked with numbers in order. A third group continued with their regular classroom activities. The finger-counting training significantly boosted the children's addition skills, working for younger preschoolers just as it does for kindergarteners. Meanwhile, practicing on a number line did not produce significant gains. This proves using hands directly plays a central role in helping kids learn arithmetic.
Imagine you are packing a suitcase for a trip. You can pack by looking at a checklist, or you can pack by physically handling each item and feeling how it fits. The checklist is fine, but your hands tell you when you are overpacking. Now suppose you only use the checklist, and your suitcase never closes properly. In this paper, children learned addition either by counting on their fingers or by using a visual counting tool. The finger group improved more than the visual-tool group. The physical, hands-on experience made the difference, just as feeling the items helps you pack better than a checklist.
Many classrooms push children away from finger counting, treating it as a crutch. This study suggests that instinct is backwards: using fingers is not just helpful but uniquely so, outperforming a number-line approach. For parents and teachers of 4- and 5-year-olds, it means letting young children count on their hands may build stronger addition skills than more abstract tools.
The abstract doesn't say whether the benefits of finger counting last over time or extend to older children or more complex math. It also doesn't prove why fingers help; the embodied-cognition explanation is a framework, not a tested mechanism. The sample is limited to 4- and 5-year-olds.
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Counting with or without fingers: The specific role of fingers in improving addition skills in preschoolers — Marie Krenger, Céline Poletti, Marie Létang et al. — Journal of experimental child psychology — doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106651
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.