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（Finger-counting）在为数学学习奠基、构建人类数学认知体系中发挥着至关重要的作用——而数学是人类认知领域中最抽象的范畴之一。尽管视觉与本体感觉信息的结合能够实现手指动作的协调，但近期有研究指出，手指计数能力的出现主要依赖视觉线索。本研究旨在直接验证这一假设：通过触觉刺激开展的显性手指计数训练，是否能够帮助视障儿童克服数学学习障碍。本研究共招募2名视障儿童被试（均为男性，年龄分别为8.5岁与7.5岁），对其开展手指计数计算训练。将该训练组被试训练前后的表现，与两组正常视力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（共18名儿童，其中男性8名、女性10名，平均年龄5.9岁，包含10名幼儿园儿童与8名一年级学生）；第二对照组则接受词汇训练（共18名儿童，其中男性10名、女性8名，平均年龄5.9岁，包含11名幼儿园儿童与7名一年级学生）。实验结果显示，接受手指计数训练的正常视力儿童，其算术能力提升幅度显著高于接受词汇训练的对照组儿童。值得注意的是，手指计数训练的积极效果同样体现在两名视障儿童被试身上：其中一名儿童的加减法能力均获得提升，另一名儿童仅在加法运算上表现出进步。本研究结合感官补偿假说对上述结果展开讨论，并强调：无论正常视力儿童还是视障儿童，早期开展适配性的手指表征教学均具有重要意义。