MagicoAbaco is the innovative strategy to empower the calculation abilities of normal and disabled children, based on an ancient and extremely effective instrument: the Japanese Soroban abacus. The teachers of classes where this strategy was adopted confirm their astonishing result.

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An innovative curricular school strategy
for the empowerment of calculation skills
in children aged 4 to 12 yrs.
Milano, May 2017.

2. The Company
Sapyent is an Innovative Social Start-up founded in 2016 by Luca Cenci – entrepreneur and
marketing specialist – Elisa Passerini and Gian Marco Malagoli.
Elisa Passerini is an infant and primary school teacher specialized in mathematics and English
and teachers’ trainer, Gian Marco Malagoli is a secondary school teacher, teacher’s trainer,
expert in learning disabilities and in calculation strategies. He is one of the few experts in Italy
on Vedic calculation and on other special calculation techniques.
Sapyent launched two initiatives:
 Sapyent (www.sapyent.com), a continuous training web-based platform recently launched
with the mission of proposing to Italian Professionals of Education contents aimed at
making their everyday life in school easier and more comfortable by learning
communication and relation-building skills and competences
 MagicoAbaco (www.magicoabaco.it), an innovative strategy for the empowerment of
calculation skills in children aged 4 to 12 based on the Japanese Soroban abacus.
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3. On Sapyent, contents are filmed in a professional way trying to make every video (averagely no longer than 20 minutes, with
the exception of conferences) as usable and likeable as possible. Currently, Sapyent has 268 active subscribers.
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4. Empowering childrens’
computational skills
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5. The objective
Everyday school experience, particularly in Italy,
confirms that calculation skills and math
represent a very serious problem, which most
students will drag along on for many years.
We believe that such problem, which also has a
sensible impact on parents and families’
everyday life, finds its cause not in childrens’
inabilities but, on the contrary, it’s due to
inadequate didactic methods traditionally used
in Italian schools.
The use of Soroban abacus since the age of 4 allows children to learn how to calculate with
speed and precision, thus also avoiding the frustrations they suffer when considering
numbers only such as unbeatable enemies.
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6. Abacus: an ancient device
The abacus originates more than two
thousand years ago as a tool helping
merchants to perform the necessary
commercial calculations. Compared to calculi
(small pebbles) and fingers, the abacus
accelerated the achievement of results.
Over the centuries, also in the wake of the
Chinese experience, the Soroban abacus has
been developed and perfected in Japan, and it
is used since 1938 in all Japanese schools for
the enhancement of computing skills from
childhood age.
Reproduction of a
Roman abacus,
derived from the
Babylonian abacus.
Calculation with
the Soroban
abacus – from
Jinkōki (塵劫記) by
Yoshida
Mitsuyoshi, edition
printed in 1641.
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7. From abacus to mental calculation
The effectiveness of an analog instrument such as the
abacus soroban is based on two key functions that
enable the child to:
▪ display / touch the pieces that represent the numbers
▪ building operations matching several pieces.
This gives the child complete control of numbers and
operations.
Not only: by exercise, the child comes to the creation of
his own mental abacus, allowing him to perform
increasingly complex tasks viewing in one's mind the
pieces and placing them by moving his/her fingers in the
air in front of him.
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8. Scientific evidence on Soroban abacus
“The first effect is improvement of numerical memory. The second is improvement of memory in spatial arrangement. The third is
progress in solving general mathematical problems taught in elementary school, including the four fundamental arithmetic
calculations and word problems.”
Prof. Shizuko Amaiwa Professor, Shinshu University, Faculty of Education, Japan
“There are many different ways to activate the brain, and one of them is the calculation with the abacus. In the abacus method of
calculation, the abacus is not only the best way to exercise fingertips, but also positively influences the right brain to be activated.”
Dr.Toshio Hayashi, Doctor of Engineering, Professor, Osaka Prefecture University, Director, Research Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
(While using abacus) “Usually the left temporal region is used for calculation, but here, it was almost entirely unused. Instead, the b
waves appeared on the right occipital region. In other words, the student carried out calculation using the right brain.(…) Usually,
ordinary people calculate in their mind using inner voice, as in one hundred minus 7 is 93. They put mathematical notions into
words. On the other hand, 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. (…) … the ability to visualize can be put to use for other subjects and
behaviors. Some abacus experts use their ability for memorizing whole page of textbook or years in history.”
Ms. Kimiko Kawano - Researcher, Nippon Medical School, Center for Informatics and Sciences
Full articles available at the following URL: http://www.shuzan.jp/english/brain/brain.html .
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9. Scientific evidence on Soroban abacus
“These data suggest that learning experiences can affect the pattern of cerebral specialization through the change of approaches to perform
cognitive tasks, and the right hemisphere engages in mental calculation for the abacus experts whereas the left hemisphere contributes to
mental calculation in ordinary people having no experience of abacus learning.”
Takeshi Hatta, Kazuo Ikeda - Osaka University of Education: Hemispheric specialization of abacus experts in mental calculation: Evidence from the results
of time-sharing tasks (1988) - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0028393288900565
“Experts of abacus operation demonstrate extraordinary ability in mental calculation. There is psychological evidence that abacus experts
utilize a mental image of an abacus to remember and manipulate large numbers in solving problems (…) mental calculation of abacus
experts is likely associated with enhanced involvement of the neural resources for visuospatial information processing in 2-dimensional
space.”
Takashi Hanakawa, Manabu Honda, Tomohisa Okada, Hidenao Fukuyama and Hiroshi Shibasaki Human Brain Research Center, Kyoto University Graduate
School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan Human Motor Control Section, NINDS, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA National Institute for Physiological Sciences,
Okazaki, Japan PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Corp., Kawaguchi, JapanDepartment of Nuclear Medicine, Kyoto University Graduate School of
Medicine, Kyoto, Japan: Abacus Experts Neural Correlates Underlying Mental Calculation In: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study -
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.604.8369&rep=rep1&type=pdf
“Skilled abacus users can calculate accurate answers to mathematical problems extremely rapidly. Interestingly, however, abacus users not
only manipulate the tool skillfully in its physical form but also gain the ability to mentally calculate extraordinarily large numbers, often more
than 10 digits at the expert level, with unusual speed and accuracy (Hatano et al., 1977). Psychological studies have shown that a non-
linguistic strategy using visual imagery of the abacus (a “mental abacus”) underlies this unusual calculation ability (Hatano et al., 1977, 1987;
Hatano and Osawa, 1983; Stigler, 1984; Hatta et al., 1989; Hishitani, 1990; Hanakawa et al., 2004; Tanaka et al., 2008; Frank and
Barner, 2012). These works have demonstrated examples of the role of mental imagery in mental arithmetic operations.”
Abacus User with a Right Hemispheric Lesion - Satoshi Tanaka,, Keiko Seki, Takashi Hanakawa, Madoka Harada, Sho K. Sugawara, Norihiro Sadato, Katsumi
Watanabe, and Manabu Honda, 2012 – in US National Library of Medicine - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3428809/
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10. Video evidence
Below are a few video links showing the progressive development of children from the
physical abacus to the mental abacus and up to impressive calculation abilities:
▪ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nN-Wrf7HPA#t=86.626, drawing a mental
abacus in the air and moving it with fingers
▪ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgFEckm-rRA , moving fingers faster
▪ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKqNIpha7K8, on mental calculation without
needing to move hands in the air any more
▪ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpg_UEvocE4 the impressive ability after several
years
▪ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG4ckYt2vYw at the top, the World Champion
of mental calculation.
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11. Training with Soroban
Training with the Soroban:
▪ use of abacus with fingers to
perform addition, subtraction,
multiplication, division with whole
numbers and decimals, ranging
from 0 to N
▪ training with dictated numbers
▪ visualization exercises with the
Anzan technique
▪ the integration of the device in
other teaching activities.
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12. How Soroban works
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13. Abacus effectiveness in classrooms
The experience in Italian primary school classes and now
also in childhood classes (4-5 yrs. old) shows that
MagicoAbaco provides:
▪ quick learning of instrument usage
▪ increase in pupils' interest for calculation
▪ improvement in written and mental calculation
▪ increase in concentration and memory
▪ increase in speed and accuracy of calculation
▪ effective integration with Italian educational
curriculum and with the other adopted texts
▪ improvement of working atmosphere in the
classroom
▪ increase of mathematical success and self-esteem.
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14. Evidence on disabilities
Soroban abacus has shown effectiveness in
classrooms even when used by children with
disabilities:
▪ It is effective on different types of retardation
and disabilities because it helps display units
▪ it is also accessible to children with dyscalculia
(calculators are not)
▪ it is a tool favoring inclusiveness because it
helps disabled children to be at the same (or
close) level vs. their peers
▪ increases their self-esteem, proving them
they are not stupid or just unable to calculate.
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15. The Authors
MagicoAbaco was developed after years of
practice in classrooms and study by Elisa
Passerini and Gian Marco Malagoli, Italian
teachers and trainers specialized in the field of
calculation strategies and in the education of
children from 4 to 12 years old.
Both the instructional books and the workbooks
were created by adapting the Japanese
traditional techniques - which every year enable
millions of Asian children to get the World’s
highest scores in the OECD PISA tests of
computing and mathematics - in order to meet
the mental structure of European children.
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16. The path and the educational materials
The teachers’ training and the educational materials include:
▪ Training for teachers on the use of Soroban and calculation techniques
▪ Methodological Guide and online tutorials for teachers
▪ Books and exercise books for students
▪ Abacus for students (6 and 13 rows)
▪ Giant abacus and Flash Cards as a teacher’s classroom tools.
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17. 6-row abacus student
kit (3-6 yrs. old)
13-row abacus kit
(7-12 yrs. old)
Educational materials for children
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18. Giant abacus Flash Cards
Educational materials for teachers.
Teachers’ Guide
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Planned program extensions
Within July 2017, the Infant version of the program will be completed and printed, thus
making us able to respond to a high demand of counting/calculation educational support for
children aged 3 to 5. It is very probable that children who effectively learned using abacus in
infancy will look at following up in primary schools.
At the same time, for teachers we are preparing abacus tutorials which will be initially
published on Sapyent and then on magicoAbaco.it as well as online contents which will be
made available by password access to teachers.
In the near future, if adequate financial resources will be available, for children we plan to
build an app and an interactive gaming platform in order to allow online access to children to
train in counting and memory calculation on a game-structure based platform.
Last but not least, a specific publications will be created in 2019 for the empowerment of
calculation skills for disabled students, based on finger counting, Vedic counting and abacus.

20. The diffusion of MagicoAbaco in Italy
In order to be effectively adopted in curricular schools, the diffusion of the program must
pass through teachers: when they are convinced of the effectiveness of the method, they
will convince parents and school managers to fund the books and abacus purchase for
children. For this reason, we have and plan to appoint “area trainers” who are not commercial
people but experts in math, didactic of maths, in order to train groups of teachers. The
training will be paid by teachers by purchasing the Teachers’ kit (Teacher’s Guide and 13-rod
abacus, price € 25).
In early November we will also participate, by delivering seminars at the XXI edition of
“Incontri con la Matematica” (Meeting with Mathematics), an annual appointment promoted
since 1986 by Prof. Bruno D’Amore, one of the most Internationally recognised experts in
math didactic which will host as usual over 900 teachers from all over Italy.
We also have a planned and managed Facebook and Twitter presence: our social media
managers are also public school teachers.
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21. Where we are now
After a first experimentation started in May, 2016 MagicoAbaco is currently in use in
everyday didactic activity (20 mins. per day) in 19 primary Italian school classrooms in
different public institutes (7 primary and 12 infant).
At the same time, teachers training is following up with 63 teachers in Genoa, 250 (including
100 disability operators) around Modena, 23 in Trieste in June and 200 planned in Bologna
for September. Besides, several schools are proposing MagicoAbaco as a proposal program
for the use of 2017 EU Structural Funds, aimed at funding basic competence-enhancing
(such as calculation) programs.
We believe we will be able to reach the objective of 100 classrooms (or 2,500 pupils) by the
end of 2017, thus substantially breaking even with our initial investment.
The evidence recorded in classrooms is extremely positive (see confidential video
attachments) and we are preparing reports and case histories which will be delivered to
prospect teachers and schools during 2017.
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22. Thank you for your attention.
MagicoAbaco is a program of
Sapyent S.r.l.s. – Innovative social start-up
Legal seat: Via Guelfa, 5 – 40138 Bologna – Operational office: Via D. Scarlatti, 9 – 20124 Milano
www.magicoabaco.it
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