Learning to Add and Subtract: A Japanese Perspective

In the first sections of this chapter I review Japanese studies on the process of acquiring early skills of addition and subtraction. I divide this process into several steps, describe some of the difficulties children encounter, and suggest teaching methods to overcome them in each step. In the next sections of the chapter I examine linguistic and cultural factors, including the use of abacus, probably contributing to the development of Japanese children’s computational competence. Then, in the final section, some suggestions for research on initial learning of addition and subtraction are presented.