Some teachers see the need to count on fingers as a sign a child is struggling with math, others see the habit as advanced numerical knowledge. So which is it? Swiss researchers wrote in the journal Child Development that children who use their fingers to help solve math problems outperform those who do not. The study showed a seventy-five percent increase in test results after the four to six year old children were taught to use their fingers to count. Further, that strategy could help reduce inequity among children’s mathematics. Unanswered, however, is whether children who use finger counting understand something deeper about numbers.