While everyone knows what arithmetic is, mental arithmetic is not so widely known. It is a unique strategy that allows children’s intellectual and creative abilities to develop in a balanced way, helping them to reach their full potential.
The ability to perform quick mental calculations is formed at an early age, when children first start school. Mental maths is essential for stimulating pupils’ mental activity. It helps them develop their memory, speech and ability to understand what they hear, and increases their attention span and reaction speed.
Mental arithmetic can be carried out in three different ways:
Our students follow these steps and at the beginning of the course they use an abacus (or counting frame). Later on, children mentally visualise an abacus to do calculations in their head.
The key advantages of this mental arithmetic course are the frequent use of videos and brain teasers to develop children’s attention and creativity and the combination of group and individual exercises to stimulate communication and interaction between both sides of the brain.
We are one of the first companies to bring mental arithmetic to Europe, and, based on our teaching experience, we have combined our fast mental maths programme with the following aspects from our Brain Fitness exercises:
It is well known that learning and developing new skills stimulates brain activity. The more we give our brain a workout, the better the pathways forged between the left and right sides of the brain. And, as a result, what once seemed hard or even impossible becomes simple and understandable.
Research has shown that a child’s brain undergoes an amazing period of development between the ages of 4 and 12. The skills obtained at this age are easy to master and remain for years, and can therefore affect your child’s future success.
The positive effect of mental arithmetic has been proven in several international studies.
In 2007 some British universities carried out research involving 3185 children aged 7 to 11 (Lynn R. & Irwing P. (2008) - Effects of Abacus training on the intelligence of Sudanese children. // Personality and Individual Differences. November 2008, pages 694-696). Regular practice using an abacus was shown to be effective, revealing improvement not only in maths but in other subjects as well.
Research into the effect of mental arithmetic on children’s working memory carried out in China (Min-Sheng Chen, Chan-Tzu Wang (2011) - Effect of mental abacus training on working memory for children // Journal of the Chinese Institute of Industrial Engineers 09/2011; 28 (6): 450-457) demonstrated a significant improvement in visual memory among the participants.
50 children aged 5 to 12 took part in research in India in 2002-2004 (Bhaskaran M., Senottaiyan A., (2006) Evaluation of memory in abacus learners. Indian J Physiol. Pharmacol., 50 (3), 225-233). A mental arithmetic course improved the children’s visual and auditory memory, concentration and focus.
Mental arithmetic therefore facilitates:
