King of Abacus

An abacus is a manual aid to calculating that consists of beads or disks that can be moved up and down on a series of sticks or strings within a usually wooden frame. The abacus itself doesn't calculate; it's simply a device for helping a human being to calculate by remembering what has been counted. The modern Chinese abacus, which is still widely used in China and other countries, dates from about 1200 A.D. It is possible that it derives from the earlier counting boards used around the Mediterranean as early as 300 B. C. An Aztec version of an abacus, circa 900-1000 A.D., is made from maize (corn) threaded through strings mounted in a wooden frame. This facilitates the functioning of "The whole brain" and helps in added intellect, thereby creating 'child maths prodigy'. Visualization: Ms. Kimiko Kawano, Researcher, Nippon Medical School, Center for Informatics and Sciences, is of the opinion that abacus users simply visualize an image of abacus in their head. They do not replace the image into words. This difference can be seen clearly in the EEGs. What is important is that the ability to visualize can be put to use for other subjects… Concentration: Decker Avenue School, California conducted a research on the effects of abacus training on children in the classroom. The study indicated that increased concentration of the abacus students was one of the pre-dominating effects of the training program. Logical reasoning: Ms. Shizuko Amaiwa, Professor, Shinshu University, observed that advanced abacus learners were found to have received desirable effects in solving certain types of mathematical problems compared to non-abacus learners. In addition, a positive effect was seen, not only in mathematical problems with integers and decimals, but also in those with fractions, especially when higher level of logical thinking is required to solve them. Photographic memory: Ms. Shizuko Amaiwa is also of the opinion that the beneficial effect of abacus training is the improvement in memory... As a result, abacus learners were found to score higher than non-abacus learners… It can be speculated that the training to obtain the abacus image visually had the effect of making students sensitive towards spatial arrangement or enhanced photographic memory… Recall: Ms. Kimiko Kawano, Researcher, Nippon Medical School, Center for Informatics and Sciences, has stated that, “some abacus experts use their ability for memorizing whole page of textbook or years in history. The ability developed by abacas can be used effectively in different ways” such as the capability to recall.