Ho Math And Chess Invents Dotted Arabic Numerals To Teach Children How To Add Or Subtract

(Thursday, December 27, 2007) - Children especially at kindergarten or preschool learn how to add or
subtract by starting using concrete objects, only after they have
understood the concept are they ready to move in to using the Arabic
numerals to do abstract work.

Some children move smoothly from playing manipulatives such as blocks,
stickers, counters etc. concrete objects to abstract symbols and the
connection from concrete objects to abstract symbols is frequently
successful. Children normally do better by using nonsymbolic arithmetic
such as counting on dots to figure out the total than actually adding
Arabic numerals. Some children do not seem to make the transition from
counting the concrete objects to Arabic numerals smoothly but they could
use dots to do arithmetic very well, so is there a link between the
nonsymbolic arithmetic and Arabic numerals such that more children can
make the transition more smoothly? Ho Math and Chess invented Dotted
Arabic numerals to make the transition and connection from counting
concrete objects to adding and subtracting of Arabic numerals an effective
means of connection.

The Arabic numerals are enhanced to train children to learn adding or
subtracting by counting dots (or adding numbers to dots such as 7 or 9)
marked on Arabic numerals. The advantage is that the number of dots on
each Arabic numeral is totally linked to each abstract Arabic numeral. For
some children this technique is helpful in learning adding or subtracting
numbers much quickly. It also helps children see that 7 = 5 + 2 and 9 = 5
+ 4, 6 = 4 + 2 etc. The interrelationship between numbers is very clear to
children by using this set of "training" numbers before they can
completely use Arabic numerals abstractly. More details can be found at
www.mathadchess.com.

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