Neurocognitive Interventions to Foster Mathematical Learning

In our exceedingly technical world, numeracy is recognized as an essential skill to meet everyday demands of life. However, poor numeracy and severe numerical learning problems are very common in our society and imply serious obstacles in daily lives, school, or professional success. It is time to gain advantages from obtained numeracy research and neuroscientific knowledge of the recent years for affected people. First, early symbolic numerical skills have been proven being crucial for later mathematical skills and enable us to identify children at risk for mathematical learning disorders already in preschool. Second, an early support of these preschool children has the potential to enable them to catch up to the mathematical levels of their peers, facilitates school entry, school development, and prevents the development of severe math learning problems. Third, general evidence-based recommendations are given that make an intervention particularly effective for people with poor numeracy. Moreover, we highlight the neuronal changes that go along with successful numerical training. Finally, insights are provided into recent approaches to stimulate the human brain by noninvasive methods using low electrical currents open new venues to facilitate numerical learning. Although it is still unclear which factors best predict individual learning success through intervention. However, there is evidence that the earlier you intervene the better and that children with more severe numerical difficulties are rather dependent on intense and individualized interventions.