RESEARCH AND ARTICLES ON MATHEMATICS AND NUMERACY INSTRUCTION FOR STUDENTS WITH SIGNIFICANT COGNITIVE DISABILITIES
Allsopp, D.H., Farmer, J.L., Hoppey, D., Kamp, D.L. Adapting Mathematics Core Curricula to Meet the Needs of Students with Disabilities. TEACHING Exceptional Children March-April 2013 vol. 45 no. 4 59.
This article discusses how several interconnected domains of effective mathematics practice can be used with a response to intervention (RTI) framework can lead to more effective mathematics teaching and numeracy development for students with significant disabilities.
The authors encourage teachers to:
- emphasize critical areas of mathematical knowledge
- engage students in multiple ways of doing mathematics
- emphasize effective explicit mathematics instructional practices
- focus instruction to build understanding, proficiency and maintenance.
Retrieved July 23, 2020. (Abstract only)
Bowman, J. A., McDonnell, J., Ryan, J. H., & Fudge-Coleman, O. (2019). Effective Mathematics Instruction for Students With Moderate and Severe Disabilities: A Review of the Literature. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 34(4), 195–204.
Educational programs for students with moderate and severe disabilities (MSD) have undergone drastic changes since the mandate for access to the general curriculum was provided by Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. Since then, educators have struggled to find methods to use to promote optimal learning, including in the area of mathematics. The purpose of this systematic literature review was to provide an update on research related to teaching mathematics to students with MSD published from 2005 to 2017. Results from the included studies indicated that mathematics research has started to diversify in the skills that are being taught to this population. In addition to skills taught, current research has continued to inform the field on some promising methods that can be used to teach a broader range of mathematics skills. Emerging strategies that were identified included the use of concrete representations, anchored instruction, and instructional technology. Suggestions for future research are discussed.
Retrieved July 23, 2020. (Abstract only)
Browder et al. Early Numeracy Instruction for Students with Moderate and Severe Developmental Disabilities. Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities; December 2012 37: 308-320.
This article looks at how early mathematical skills, which promote mathematical competence for students with learning disabilities, will also enhance learning for students with significant cognitive disabilities. It also identifies four key components to enhance mathematical instruction and numeracy development for students with significant disabilities, including:
- targeting early mathematical skills
- using systematic prompting and feedback
- using math stories in small group instruction
- embedding early mathematical skills at the same time at working on grade-level content.
Retrieved July 23, 2020. (Abstract only)
Browder, D.M. & Spooner, F. Chapter 8: Beginning Numeracy Skills in More Language Arts, Math, and Science for Students with Severe Disabilities. Paul H. Brooks Publishing Co., 2014.
Early numeracy skills help build mathematical competence and are indicative of mathematical success later in life. Students with significant disabilities tend to enter elementary school lacking a solid foundation in early numeracy skills, and the gap widens as student progress through the grades. Through sound instructional practices, students with severe disabilities can be taught these skills. This chapter discusses systematic instruction and explicit instruction as two promising instructional methods for teaching early numeracy skills to students with significant disabilities. As well, critical early numeracy skills are described followed by research-based practices for teaching them and the specific steps educators can use to teach them.
Browder, D.M. & Spooner, F. Chapter 9: Teaching Grade Aligned Math Skills in More Language Arts, Math, and Science for Students with Severe Disabilities. Paul H. Brooks Publishing Co., 2014.
Mathematics provides an important foundation of knowledge and skills for students with significant disabilities and mathematical learning can enhance their quality of life. Research over the past few years indicates that students with significant disabilities can learn higher level mathematical concepts if they receive effective instruction aligned with meaningful learning experiences. This chapter highlights research-based practices on teaching mathematics to students with significant disabilities including:
- systematic prompting and feedback
- graphic organizers and task analytic instruction and
- direct instruction
Courtade, G. R., Lingo, A. S., Karp, K. S., Whitney, T. (2013). Shared story reading: Teaching mathematics to students with moderate and severe disabilities. Teaching Exceptional Children, 45, 34–44.
Shared story reading is used successfully to promote literacy skills for all students. However, the benefits of shared story reading are not exclusive to literacy instruction and should carry into other disciplines, such as mathematics. Using shared story reading to teach mathematics concepts can play an important role in mathematics instruction for all students. What steps should teachers follow when using children’s literature as a contextual springboard to meaningful mathematical lessons for students with moderate and severe disabilities?
Retrieved July 23, 2020. (Abstract only)
Doabler, C.G. et al. Enhancing Core Mathematics Instruction for Students at Risk for Mathematics Disabilities. Teaching Exceptional Children; Mar/Apr2012, Vol 44 Issue 4, p48.
This article offers practical guidelines to enhance math instruction to make it more systematic and explicit, including:
- prioritizing instruction around critical content.
- pre-teaching requisite skills to ensure success with new material.
- carefully selecting and sequencing instructional examples.
- scaffolding instruction to promote learner independence.
- modeling and demonstrating instructional tasks that students will learn.
- using clear concise language; this helps clarify the target, skill or concept.
- providing several models – but not so many that instruction gets bogged down with a lot of teacher talk.
- creating opportunities for students to actively participate in models, such as answering questions.
- providing frequent and meaningful practice and review opportunities.
- using visual representations of mathematical ideas.
- delivering timely academic feedback, both corrective and confirmatory.
Retrieved July 23, 2020. (Abstract only)
Jimenez, B.A. & Kemmery, M. Building the Early Numeracy Skills of Students with Moderate Intellectual Disability. Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 2013, 48(4), 479–490.
This study investigated the effects of an early numeracy intervention package on early numeracy skill attainment for participants with moderate intellectual disabilities, including autism. The intervention taught students to use nonstandard and standard measurement, counting skills, calendar skills, how to create sets, and how to identify and work with patterns. A single-subject design across three classrooms was employed to evaluate the intervention package. Specifically, three special education teachers used engaging story-based math lessons with embedded systematic instruction to promote the early math concept acquisition of five students with intellectual disability. Results found that all students showed a significant increase in early numeracy skill acquisition after receiving the intervention package. The study’s contributions to research, limitations, need for future research, and implications for practice are discussed.
Retrieved July 23, 2020. (Full PDF of article available)
Jimenez, B.A. & Staples, K. Access to the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics through Early Numeracy Skill Building for Students with Significant Intellectual Disability. Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 2015, 50(1), 17–30.
This study extends the research of Browder, Jimenez, Spooner et al. (2012) and Jimenez and Kemmery (2013) by investigating the impact of early numeracy skills instruction on grade-aligned math achievement. In this study, students were taught early numeracy skills (e.g., number identification, making sets to five items, simple addition) using theme based lessons, systematic prompting and feedback, manipulatives and graphic organizers. This study provides evidence that students with significant intellectual disability, including those with multiple disabilities, can learn new math skills that will grant them greater access to grade-aligned math achievement and that students with and without disability need to have fluency within early numeracy skills to truly “understand math”.
Retrieved July 23, 2020. (Abstract only)
Rivera, C.J. & Baker, J.N. Teaching Students with Intellectual Disability to Solve for x. TEACHING Exceptional Children; November/December 2013 46: 14-21.
Research has demonstrated that most math skills taught to students with intellectual and developmental disabilities are functional in nature. Students are often taught rote counting, money skills, and how to tell time. This article describes how to use graphic organizers and task analyses when teaching students with intellectual disability to solve simple one-step algebraic linear equations.
Retrieved July 23, 2020. (Abstract only)
Saunders, A.F. et al. Solving the Common Core Equation: Teaching Mathematics CCSS to Students with Moderate and Severe Disabilities.TEACHING Exceptional Children, v45 n3 p24-33 Jan-Feb 2013.
This article demonstrates how the overall learning experience for students with significant disabilities is enhanced when they participate in learning activities aligned with grade level outcomes in the mathematics program of studies while continuing to work on basic mathematics. The authors describe evidence-based practice that will enhance mathematics instruction for students with disabilities including: constant time delay. least to most prompting, and task analysis.
The article also offers a six-step approach for teaching mathematics to students with disabilities, including:
- Step 1: Selecting a topic and create objectives.
- Step 2: Identifying a real-life activity using the skill.
- Step 3: Incorporating evidence-based instructional practices.
- Step 4: Including instructional supports.
- Step 5: Monitoring progress.
- Step 6: Planning for generalization.
Retrieved July 23, 2020. (Abstract only)
