Forbidding kids from using their fingers to count deprives them of access to a powerful neural circuit that is essential to higher-order mathematical achievement. In fact, when paired with number games, a 2017 study found that finger-counting actually boosts critical skills like counting, ordering, comparing, and adding. Even when kids don’t use their fingers while doing math problems, researchers found that the part of the brain responsible for the perception and representation of fingers—the somatosensory finger area—lights up anyway, activating a sort of mental pantomime of the physical act. So you can stop kids from counting on their hands, but the fingers of the mind, in ghostly enumeration, will run the math regardless. Link in bio. #ITeachK #ITeachKindergarten #ITeachKinder #ITeachFirst #ITeachSecond #EarlyMath #ElementaryMath #LearningToCount #MathBrain #MathTeacher #FingerCounting