Lily Janson

Making Math Stick: How Manipulatives Boost Learning Across Grade Levels 

Children make sense of the world through sight, sound, touch, and movement. Decades of cognitive and neuroscience research show that sensory experiences form the foundation for abstract thought, including mathematical reasoning. When children explore, sort, build, and compare, they develop the brain pathways that later support number sense and problem solving (Butterworth, 2019; Sarama & Clements, 2021). This idea, often called embodied cognition, highlights how physical experience shapes mental understanding. In mathematics, hands-on learning is essential.