Why Abacus is a Game-Changer for Kids' Brain Development

Have you ever wished for a magic wand that can make your kids superfast and accurate in all kinds of arithmetic calculations in Mathematics? Well, Abacus classes help you achieve exactly that and much more. Let’s understand how Abacus achieves such magical magnificent results and why is Abacus termed as game changer for kid’s brain development?

The Basics - What is Abacus?

Before we venture deep, let's understand the basics. Abacus is the oldest and traditional technique to learn the language of Maths and to develop a strong command over all kinds of calculations. You must know that Abacus is the world’s oldest and manual calculator and was used in every household and shop in the old days since digital calculators did not exist at that time.

How does Abacus work?

The fundamentals of Abacus training works on the concept of beads which are fitted on a rectangular frame made of either plastic or wood. Even modern science has accepted the fact that representation via beads is the most effective way to teach numbers to the kids initially, and this is why Abacus based educational toys for toddlers are seen in every household worldwide, irrespective of location or culture.

Let us look at a simple example of how to represent the digit 3 on Abacus tool

• To represent the digit 3, total three beads in the lower house should be moved to the top as depicted in the picture below

• In the above example, now let us understand how to do addition of 1 so that the resulting number becomes 4. For this, the child will need to move the bottom bead also to the upward position so that a total of 4 beads are placed towards the top (near to the house) as depicted in the picture below. Does this way of representing numbers sound interesting?

Why Abacus is a Game-Changer for Kids' Brain Development

Abacus is one of the best courses for kids in the age group of 5-15 years since in addition to superfast calculations, it also helps in overall brain development. Let us understand how.

• Hand-eye-ear coordination

Abacus for kids make extensive use of hand-eye-ear coordination where the trainer continuously speaks the series of number-based questions and for every  number, the child practices the finger movement to represent that number by changing the position of beads on the physical tool. These steps are practiced over many weeks and months to gain high speed and accuracy.

• Visualization technique

Once the child does enough practice of Abacus on the physical tool (typically 3 months), the next stage is to stop using the physical tool and create an imaginary picture of the Abacus tool in his mind. In this picture the beads must be in their original or default position. Then for every number, the child does an imaginary movement of beads and overrides the earlier image of the tool in his mind with the new image which contains the new beads position. He repeats the same step for every number, which means that he keeps on overriding the image of the Abacus tool in his mind with the latest image. This process may sound a bit strange, but this is the real secret behind the success of Abacus classes for kids. Using Visualization kids can do all calculations simply in their mind without ever needing a paper or a pen.

• Improved Focus and Concentration

As the child practices Abacus under the guidance of a professional trainer, with time you will notice tremendous increase in his grasping ability and concentration power. Abacus stimulates the right brain (when multiple organs like hand-eye-ear work in coordination with each other) and as a result both left and right brain of the kid become active at a certain point during Abacus training. A child is able to effectively do the finger movement using both hands at the same time which is testimony to the fact that both his left and right brain are activated. I am sure you can imagine the advantage this gives to your child over his peers and the confidence boost that he will get. He will be more and more interested in learning new things and concepts (not only in academics) but in any sphere of life since self-confidence holds the key to every success in life, and confident kids are always eager to explore and learn new things since they are not afraid of failures.

Where to find the best Abacus classes online?

Are you wondering where and how to find the best Abacus classes? Today there are plenty of options available but the key is which one is best. In my case I had decided upfront to go with an online option since I did not want to narrow down my options within 1-2 kms of my residence.

During my research online, I interacted with Mathcruise.com chief trainer. The initial reason I contacted them was their fabulous Google reviews from multiple parents. And when I spoke to their chief trainer, I was amazed by her confidence and passion for Maths. She explained the benefits of Abacus in a simple way and helped me understand the criterion based on which we should decide which course is best for our kids. They also provide physical abacus classes in Delhi at their study center, and at the same time have 100% success result for all their online batches. You can watch the videos of their students on their website, which seems just unbelievable.

My son completed the Abacus course 3 months ago, and I then enrolled him in Rubik's cube classes with the same trainer simply because Mathcruise teaching methodology is very effective and they create a bond with every single student. I got great feedback from fellow parents that they are one of pioneers in providing the best rubik's cube classes as well as best Vedic Maths online classes. So if you have a reference of some good trainer from your friends, you can go with them, else you can blindly reach out to the Mathcruise team since they offer money back guarantee also if the child is not able to cope up for any reason.