In this study, researchers at the University of Delhi explored how using the physical body and physical interactions can improve math education during early childhood. Instead of relying strictly on worksheets and passive listening, the math curriculum in two classrooms was adapted to feature embodied cognition: sensorimotor problems, hand gestures, and continuous physical motion to map mathematical definitions to bodily awareness. The aim of this research was to was to identify specific mathematical areas within early childhood education where these active learning strategies can be effectively implemented to replace or supplement traditional sedentary teaching.
The study included 60 first and second grade students in a classroom that was set up to be an interactive learning space where movement and expression were encouraged. The researchers introduced activities such as yoga postures, jumping on a number line, making shapes with their bodies, creating shapes using their hands as tangram pieces, and drawing shapes from tribal Warli art motifs. Not surprisingly, they found that using an action-oriented design allowed young learners to discover math solutions through physical problem-solving.
In the yoga activities, students began identifying types of lines through body awareness. Moving their bodies on a life-sized number line made mathematical operations visible: children physically enacted addition and subtraction, reinforcing understanding through coordinated jumps and rhythmic counting. Body shape activities, such as stretching tall, crouching short, and stepping long or short, helped children feel quantity and difference. In the tangram activities, children displayed reasoning through play: they combined smaller hand-formed triangles to create squares and rectangles, linking part–whole relations. Collaboration was visible in their tribal art shape drawings, too. As children discussed shape placement, their gestures mirrored their speech, reflecting embodied cognition. Most notably, across all activities, young learners who were previously hesitant in math lessons became engaged and confident, showing reduced anxiety and improved retention.
The researchers identified that pre-number concepts, lines, shapes, patterns, number operations, and spatial reasoning naturally lend themselves to embodied learning: these areas provided the highest engagement, transforming the classroom into an interactive, movement-based learning environment. In addition, group tasks fostered collaboration and social-emotional learning as the students were encouraged to share, compare, and self-reflect. By helping the students use language to explain their movements during reflective conversations, the researchers found that students internalized and expressed math concepts and abstract concepts felt more tangible.
StepUp Note
This research shows that children have a better understanding of math when they use physical movement to interact with learning in tangible, physical ways. Understanding how math works is particularly essential for story problems, or applying mathematical reasoning to practical life learning. All of our StepUp to Learn exercises require students to figure out what to do (movement and talking patterns) and when to do it (combine the neural networks of speech and movement to match the rhythm of the exercise). Seeing and feeling space and time create a practical foundation for mathematical learning.
Note by Nancy W. Rowe, MS, CCC/A