Blogging Parent

A place for me to talk about parenting and fatherhood.

May 23, 2007

Now I Know Why I’m Bad at Maths

Now I know why I’m bad at maths! Just by looking at my fingers!!

According to research done by the Bath University in the UK and published in British Journal of Psychology,

children’s academic strengths can be predicted by the relative lengths of the fingers”.

From the study of 75 seven-year-old children, those with shorter ring fingers as compared to their index fingers did better in tests at literacy than maths. And those with longer ring fingers were better at maths.

According to the researchers, the levels of hormones the children are exposed to in the womb do play a part in the development of the child. Testosterone is supposed to promote development in the areas of the brain that are associated with spatial and mathematical skills while oestrogen is associated with verbal ability. And the most amazing thing is that both testosterone and oestrogen play a part in the relative lengths of the index and ring fingers.

I suppose you can guess which hormones affect which finger …. Well, children exposed to more testosterone will have longer ring fingers and those exposed to more oestrogen will have longer index fingers.

Hmmm … will have to go home this evening to check on Matthew’s fingers as it’ll mean we’ll have to put more effort into either his verbal skills or mathematical skills depending on the relative lengths of his index and ring fingers.

(via BBC News)

Technorati Tags: child development, health