This is an important piece of research. It shows that children’s brain activity changes as they make the transition from basic counting skills to automatic fact retrieval. Moreover, automatic retrieval of single digit arithmetic tasks has been shown to correlate with performance in advanced, high school level maths skills. (See comment below.)
This transition should take place around 8 to 9 years old, but it won’t happen unless children PRACTISE. And what better way to practise single digit arithmetic than learning the column-based methods! Children get faster at single-digit arithmetic whilst learning to operate with larger numbers at the same time. It’s a double win! And let’s not forget how much it improves their confidence and enjoyment of maths, at that age, when they realise they can handle working with larger numbers.
It’s pretty clear why a strategy-based approach at such an early age is catastrophic for developing young mathematical minds. Anyone who claims that the Numeracy Project was based on the work of Jean Piaget uses his name in vain. Piaget’s stages of cognitive development would place the strategies at the Formal Operational Stage (aged 11 to 16 or higher).
It’s reassuring to see cognitive neuroscience supporting a common sense approach to learning maths.
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Neuroscience study reveals new link between basic math skills and PSAT math success
“The surprising thing here is that we found both a positive and negative relationship between brain activation during the very elementary, single digit arithmetic tasks and how well they did on the PSAT test, which measures advanced, high school level math skills…illustrating the critical role that arithmetic fluency plays in building mathematical proficiency among students.” – Assoc. Prof. Daniel Ansari