For centuries, the abacus has helped with counting. In Portugal, since 2015, it also began teaching how to think. That is the proposal of the ALOHA Mental Arithmetic program, which uses that instrument with wooden beads to teach children to develop mathematical and reasoning skills.
The method consists of using the abacus as an initial learning tool, but over time children can dispense with it, performing calculations only mentally. The objective is for students to develop thinking skills through this ancestral technique.
In the last three years, 13 Portuguese young people took this technique to international mental calculation competitions, representing the country and demonstrating the program's results.
