We are born with an innate number sense
Count on your fingers; Math is powerful
Math without Pain V1(2)
Warm salutations!
Below are this week’s 4 Things from Math without Pain.
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in peace,
Susan
This week’s 4 Things
1. Something to think about: We are born with an innate number sense
2. Something to do: Count on your fingers
3. Something to journal about: Starting this program
4. Something to take away: Math is powerful
Something to think about: We are born with an innate number sense
At Justin Halberda’s lab at Johns Hopkins, babies are shown images of 16 dots on a page. The number of dots stays the same, but the arrangements keep changing. After a while, the images seem to be less interesting, as the babies don’t look at the screen for as long as they did at first. Then the researcher changes the number of dots, and the baby’s attention stays longer on the image. The baby is too young to talk, let alone count, but it notices the difference in the number of dots.
This and other research indicates that babies are born with an innate number sense.
We all come into this world with a foundation of mathematical understanding. We are born comfortable with math. It’s part of our nature.
What goes wrong? What circumstances result in some people having difficulty with math, or feeling like math = pain? Researchers are still at the beginning of understanding why.
Ref: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/babies-are-born-with-an-innate-number-sense/
Something to do: Count on your fingers
Were you ever told not to count on your fingers? Many have been. Forget that. Humans all over the world have been using their fingers to count for untold centuries.
There are many ways to do this. Here’s one:
Look at one hand, palm side facing you, and slightly bend your fingers. Notice how each finger is divided into three segments: base, middle and tip. Touch the tip of your thumb to the base of your first finger and say, “one.” Move your thumb tip to touch the middle segment of the same finger and say, “two.” Move your thumb tip up to the tip of the same finer and say, “three.”
Continue to the next finger, moving the tip of your thumb from base to tip of the finger in three steps and count out loud, “four, five, six.” Using all four fingers this way you can get up to twelve on one hand.
We will build on this later, but for now, teach yourself this skill, and recognize that there is value in speaking the numbers out loud as you touch your finger pads with your thumb tip. This makes the exercise multi-sensory, involving touch, sound, sight, and movement of the hand and the face (so, both proprioceptive and interoceptive).
Something to journal about: Starting this program
How do you feel about starting out on this venture? What are your hopes and expectations?
Something to take away: Math is powerful
“Mathematics is a more powerful instrument of knowledge than any other that has been bequeathed to us by human agency.” - René Descartes