Development of Finger Counting Habits in Young Children: Literacy and Handedness Roles

In order to investigate the development of finger counting habits emphasizing upon literacy and handedness roles in young children, 200 preschool and school age children of Tehran were selected by cluster sampling method. The Handedness Questionnaire of Chapman and Chapman (1987) and the Finger Counting Questionnaire (Coren, 1993) were administered to the participants. The results of chi- square test indicated that there were significant differences between preschool (illiterate) and school age (literate) children, and between right-preferred and left-preferred children in finger counting habits. No significant difference was found between boys and girls in finger counting habits. Most of the preschool children started to count from 1 to 10 with right hand (23.5%) and left hand (18%), and most of the school age children started with right hand. Also right-preferred children often started to count from 1 to 10 with right hand and left-preferred children started with left hand.