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For decades, early childhood educators have been split into two camps when it comes to arithmetic – the group that advocates counting using your fingers, and another group who believe that counting with fingers is a crutch that should be disposed of as soon as children have a basic grasp of numbers.

Studies are now determining that the sense of touch is actually an important part of learning arithmetic, and should be encouraged. Importantly, these recent findings show that using your fingers doesn’t just help kinaesthetic learners – visual learners learn faster too. Elsewhere, Norwegian researchers studied 450 two-year-olds and found a definitive link between good motor skills and good mathematical abilities.