Is Learning the Abacus Good for Young Students: Feb 2021 New

We explore the science behind the abacus and how it works.

Parent who may be unsure about the abacus can learn if it is actually a practical tool to use here.

Learning the abacus may serve more good than bad.
 

I'm the author of this article and I'm a qualified abacus teacher, answering questions from around the world online abacus and various questions from online-soroban.com students.

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The abacus, also labeled a Counting Frame, is a century-old object as well as an instrument used for the calculation of goods and money.

The Abacus is sometimes divided into two sections being the upper region and the lower region, but in some cases, it is not divided at all.

The division being a bar in the center is meant to assist in easily doing mental calculations that cause no confusion.
 

1-1.Is Learning Abacus Good and How It Became Popular

To understand the abacus, one needs to learn the meaning of each row on the piece.

The soroban is made out of a number of rows, usually six.

On these rows, there are moveable beads that are viewed as digits.

The beads signifying digits are made to act like an operation with a second number, in this case being an addition.

For the Chinese abacus known as the Suanpan, when there is a division bar, the beads on the lower deck each represent different numbers.

On the far right, the first bead represents 1, next on the left; that bead represents 10 followed by 100 again on the left, and so on.

On the upper deck, the first bead on the right represents 5, followed by 50 on the left and 100 following that.

For example with the Suanpan, when a bead is shifted towards the bar it is counted for; this being the addition in math.

For the modern variation, the lower deck has 4 beads in each row whilst the upper deck has one.

To calculate using this form of the abacus, one must first learn what is known as complementary numbers, which have been known to be a difficult and long learning procedure but it assists in being able to calculate with speed in the future.

The abacus holds a bit of science to it as it allows for certain senses to meet our interests.

As our brains become stimulated when our senses are engaged, our sensory nerves such as the visual, touching, added with our motor nerves being the trochlear and abducens being the muscles known for eye movements, allow the functioning of the soroban to be simplified naturally and give some sort of interest.

The beads on the abacus are designed in a way that when children handle them in their hands and play with them with their fingers, the nerve endings from our touch get stimulated which in turn stimulates the brain.

This means that students will see an improvement in not only numbers, but also with their hand-eye coordination and even overall body coordination.

1-2.What Can You Learn With the Soroban and Is Learning Abacus Good for Kids?

The abacus was mainly created for the general use of performing basic math problems so it relatively teaches control in math problems.

The soroban has been known to give a boost in confidence when it comes to problem-solving, give a better understanding of the value in numbers and their concepts as well as bringing about concentration, imaginative accuracy, photographic memory, innovation, and speed.

For most, it also helps by removing the fear of mathematics by making calculations simpler for one to do.

The benefits to what the soroban can teach are countless as it improves not just mathematics but overall academic skills for example, in being able to help dyslexic children as well as non-dyslexic children who have difficulties in the reading, writing, and spelling categories, the abacus has assisted in the teaching of literacy and their numerical skills.

This has been done by the sense in touch and visual understanding.
 

1-3. Is Learning Abacus Online Good for Schooling Children?

When children can master the use of the soroban, they begin to use the mental image of the soroban, which is what the teaching of the virtual abacus helps with.

The image of a virtual soroban helps to do complex arithmetic calculations with their hands.

Living in this day and age it has now become constant to find anything from the internet either to be bought, downloaded, or only accessed by the web.

There are a number of websites that offer soroban education online.

Known as an all-in-one, soroban online schools will offer you a virtual abacus of either you are picking or with what is available and shown on the screen with equations and text on how to embark on this interesting journey.

Some may also offer an independent practice that includes traditional pencil and paper classes.

The combination of visual, auditory, and tactile input into each learning opportunity, allows students to make a connection and find the learning process easier.

Other options for soroban education incudes the ISHIDO SHIKI traditional curriculum known to be effective to guide students with easy to understand math materials.

When they have successfully completed their abacus chapter, they will be quizzed to evaluate their understanding of the topic.

The classes are fully customizable to allow young students to understand calculations without having to catch up or fall behind.

Overall  
The use of the abacus has been around for centuries and is beginning to make a come-back in this new day and age for both the online abacus schools and the man-made abacus.

This object has made its way from being just used for the teachings of mathematics to also helping children with key literacy skills as well as finding its purpose in providing confidence too.

Students using the abacus are seen to be less stressed when attending math classes.

Being made in different forms, the abacus has never lost its key feature of beads as well as its uses.

Because it is taught in schools as well as online, the teaching of digits and simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division has been made easier and even more accessible today.