Computer game improves children’s math performance

The Baltimore Sun:

Parents whose children struggle with math may have new reason to be hopeful: A recent study at the Johns Hopkins University suggests that young people can improve their performance by carrying out a few simple computer exercises unrelated to numbers or math symbols.

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People generally believe that children must practice math problems similar to those they will see on a test in order to get better at math in school.

Wang’s team took a different approach, testing whether exercising children’s approximate number sense, not their learned abilities, would help them perform better in math.

It did.

“Interestingly, this new study shows that boosting children’s reliance on this intuitive understanding at least temporarily improves their performance on a standardized math test,” said Melissa Libertus, a psychology professor at the University of Pittsburgh who studies children’s cognitive development.

Read the whole story: The Baltimore Sun