Enhancing mathematics learning through finger-counting: A study investigating tactile strategies in 2 visually impaired cases

Finger-counting plays a crucial role in grounding and establishing mathematics, one of the most abstract domains of human cognition. While the combination of visual and proprioceptive information enables the coordination of finger movements, it was recently suggested that the emergence of finger-counting primarily relies on visual cues. In this study, we aimed to directly test this assumption by examining whether explicit finger-counting training (through tactile stimulation) may assist visually impaired children in overcoming their difficulties in learning mathematics. Two visually impaired participants (2 boys of 8.5 and 7.5 years) were therefore trained to use their fingers to calculate. Their pre- and post-training performance were compared to two control groups of sighted children who underwent either the same finger counting training (8 boys, 10 girls, Mage = 5.9 years; 10 kindergarteners and eight 1st graders) or another control vocabulary training (10 boys, 8 girls, Mage = 5.9 years; 11 kindergarteners and seven 1st graders). Results demonstrated that sighted children’s arithmetic performance improved much more after the finger training than after the vocabulary training. Importantly, the positive impact of the finger training was also observed in both visually impaired participants (for addition and subtraction in one child; only for addition in the other child). These results are discussed in relation to the sensory compensation hypothesis and emphasize the importance of early and appropriate instruction of finger-based representations in both sighted and visually impaired children.

手指计数在人类认知领域中最抽象的领域之一——数学的奠基与构建中发挥着至关重要的作用。尽管视觉与本体感受信息的结合可实现手指运动的协调，但近期有研究提出，手指计数的出现主要依赖视觉线索。本研究旨在通过检验显性手指计数训练（借助触觉刺激（tactile stimulation））是否能够帮助视力障碍儿童（visually impaired children）克服数学学习困难，直接验证这一假设。本研究共招募2名视力障碍儿童参与者（分别为8.5岁和7.5岁的男性儿童），对其开展手指计算训练，并将训练前后的表现与两组视力正常儿童对照组进行对比：第一对照组接受相同的手指计数训练（8名男童、10名女童，平均年龄（Mage）=5.9岁，其中10名幼儿园儿童、8名一年级学生）；第二对照组接受词汇训练对照（10名男童、8名女童，平均年龄（Mage）=5.9岁，其中11名幼儿园儿童、7名一年级学生）。结果显示，与词汇训练组相比，接受手指计数训练的视力正常儿童的算术成绩提升更为显著。值得注意的是，手指训练的积极影响同样体现在两名视力障碍儿童参与者身上：其中一名儿童在加减法任务中均表现出提升，另一名儿童仅在加法任务中获得改善。本研究结合感官补偿假说（sensory compensation hypothesis）对上述结果展开讨论，并强调了针对视力正常与视力障碍儿童开展早期、适宜的手指表征教学的重要性。