Scientific research on mental health and wellness continues to show that healthy habits are essential for both physical and mental health. The Amen Clinic in the US is perhaps one of the leading centres on promoting “brain warrior” health, that is, ensuring that everything you do nourishes, protects, and heals the brain. Dr. Amen’s research relies on a fusion of psychiatric and neuroscientific diagnostic brain-scans followed by customized treatment options that include talk-based counselling and psychotherapy, and a range of holistic services such as nutritional, vestibular, and other integrative medical and paramedical approaches. This exciting research underscores the importance of the brain in every aspect of your life.
The ability to perform mental math is one simple example that may reveal how well you are doing. For those of us who were taught in early childhood to do simple calculations by rote, that is rigorous early instruction based on memorizing multiplication tables, and learning basic addition, subtraction, and division tasks, deep memories of facts and cognitive functions are stored in our brains. In this sense, it is not only the retention of facts that is important, but also the neuropathways created when learning to conduct basic mathematical operations. The brain has thousands of neuropathways that support cognitive functions of every kind.
Recently, I was in a local grocery store that had cereal bars on sale. The items were listed in small and larger boxes wherein 8 were selling for $2.99 and 16 were posted at $6.70. It only took me a few seconds to calculate that the smaller box was actually more affordable than the larger one per unit. In fact, the larger item was seventy cents more expensive. When I approached the sales person at the counter to inform her about this discrepancy in costs, she replied by saying that she had “no control over the pricing of items in the aisles”. Despite the social justice issue created here for people purchasing items in a hurry and buying for larger families paying more per unit than those with the privilege of time to mindfully compare costs, I was reminded about the importance of mental math and its impact on health and wellbeing as we age.
This ability to perform quick mathematical computations in our heads is certainly an important life skill that we can practice on a regular basis as a measure of our abilities to think. At the age of 16 years old, I was the “head cashier” in a Shopper’s Drug Mart where making change to customers was also calculated in our heads. The cash registers back in those days did not calculate change. The line-ups at the check-out counters were as long as they are today, and the customers as equally demanding. We had to ring in the items, collect money, and ensure that customers received the accurate change. One of the roles of the head cashier was to calculate the overall earnings at each till at the end of each shift, and to ensure that every till balanced within $20 of the total earned for that shift. I prided myself on balancing the till most evenings even when my cash register surpassed $10,000 dollars per shift. Today, there appear to be many cashiers, perhaps too many who struggle to make simple change. Many cashiers are stumped whenever you hand over small change to help round out the total. I find this new normal sad.
As we age, the ability to remember becomes increasingly challenging. So, it is more important than ever to focus on brain health as well. I worry about generations of young people who are unable to perform simple mathematical computations without the assistance of a calculator or device. What are we collectively doing to the brain when we fail to promote health neuropathway development in young children and youth? I understand the modern argument is that there will always be devices to assist us in calculating simple equations. However, we simply do not know enough about long term impacts on overall cognitive functioning and wellbeing when less rigor in early mathematical learning is normalized.
The notion of Math Anxiety has been circulating for several years now as well. It seems clear to me that emotions are evoked when solving problems, especially when it is hard to figure out a solution. The level of tolerance to frustration increases when people cannot understand the steps required to solve a problem. This is as true in solving problems in everyday tasks of daily living as it is in math. Some frustration is common in all forms of learning – it can be struggle to see something new for the very first time until you do.
As a clinician, working in an educational milieu for many years, I have always viewed a connection between learning and social wellbeing. Students who struggled with learning, often struggled in social situations as well. The inability to solve problems in math often seemed to be associated with a generalized inability to solve problems with friends and family. To me the equation is simple, learning basic math in early childhood builds the sophisticated cognitive neuropathway support for everyday problem solving as well.
Lisa Romano-Dwyer BSc, MSW, PhD, RSW
