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Gesturing helps grade schools solve mathematics
problems
Using
the hands to explain things may tap into knowledge kids can’t otherwise
articulate
Psychologists
at the University of Chicago report that gesturing can help kids add new
and correct problem-solving strategies to their mathematical repertoires.
What’s more, when given later instruction, kids who are told to gesture are
more likely to succeed on math problems. A report on these findings
appears in the “Making Children Gesture Brings Out Implicit Knowledge
and Leads to Learning,” published in the November issue of JEP:
General, which
is published by the American Psychological Association (APA).
Susan Goldin-Meadow, the Beardsley Ruml
Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology at the University and
colleagues conducted two studies with a total of 176 children in late third
and early fourth grade. The research team randomly assigned the students to
different manipulations – told to gesture, told not to gesture, and not | 
