Effects of a tablet game intervention on simple addition and subtraction fluency in first graders

In the present study, we aimed to playfully improve arithmetic fluency skills with a tablet game training. Participants were 103 grade 1 children from regular primary schools. The tablet game was tested with a pretest-posttest control group design, and consisted of a racing game environment in which the player competed against a virtual opponent by rapidly solving addition and subtraction problems up to 20. During the 5-week intervention, one group (n = 52) practiced with the game while another group (n = 51) continued regular education without the game. Before, directly after, and three months after the intervention, we applied an arithmetic test to measure simple addition and subtraction skills in both symbolic (Arabic; 4) and non-symbolic (dots; ::) number notations. The intervention group increased significantly more on dot-subtraction efficiency than the control group, an effect which was prominent directly after the intervention. Since i) dot-subtraction is considered to rely more on calculation than the other arithmetic types that we measured and ii) the dot problem-answer representations were not practiced during the intervention, our results suggest that the tablet game promoted arithmetic fluency by benefitting calculation efficiency rather than retrieval efficiency or the switch from calculation to retrieval. •Can a tablet game training playfully promote arithmetic fluency in grade 1 children?•Children enjoyed playing with the tablet game.•Fluency was not enhanced for Arabic-addition and subtraction, nor for dot-addition.•Fluency, however, was enhanced for subtraction with dots.•Calculation speed seems to be stimulated rather than retrieval speed or memorization.