Embodied Number Sense in the Making: A Preschooler’s Interaction with the Fingu App

Abstract This article presents a study of 6-year-old Tommy’s first interaction with the educational iPad app Fingu. Fingu is designed to support the development of early number sense, and in particular the understanding of numbers 1–10 as part–whole relations through multi-touch input. Tommy’s mathematical learning was studied in terms of emergent fluency with the mathematical instrument Fingu, with attention to the transformations of his perceptuomotor activity. A fine-grained qualitative analysis of a 13-min video was conducted, following the model of microgenetic learning analysis. The analytical framework adopted allows for capturing many nuances of Tommy’s learning experience, in terms of the development of specific number sense skills, such as finger gnosis and control, representing numbers with fingers, and recognizing part–whole relationships. This research contributes to a broader understanding of how young children’s number sense can develop through the use of multi-touch technologies and how it can be studied in detail.