Special Education Math Teaching Strategies

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Teaching strategies for math in special education classes are based on the idea that students with mathematical learning disabilities need additional tools and support when building basic skills. Current research suggests that a lack of number sense, or an innate understanding of the representational meaning of math terms, is a root cause of mathematical learning disabilities. Effective teaching strategies help to develop students' number sense and self-confidence.
  • Build Automaticity of Basic Math Facts
The recommended strategy for building number sense in special education is to build automaticity of basic math facts by doing extended practice of basic operations. By making this knowledge automatic rather than procedural, the student can execute these operations without any cognitive effort, allowing him to devote his resources to more complex reasoning.
  • Explicit, Systematic Instructions
In its Mathematics Advisory report, the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities defined the use of explicit, systematic instructions as a critical part of special education math teaching. Keys to systematic instruction include appropriate pacing, frequent feedback, student engagement, adequate time for processing information and monitoring student progress.
  • Peer Instruction
The National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities also promoted the use of self-instruction and peer instruction as crucial to successful special-education math instruction. Pairing students together with different abilities to practice a math lesson allows them to act as both teachers and learners. Have each partner perform a different role in the game or lesson and then switch roles halfway through the period.
  • Visual Representations
The goal of using visual representations is making an abstract concept visible and concrete, thereby making it more intelligible. Students lacking number sense often fail to understand the symbolic roles of numbers and operations on paper; an effective visual representation will demonstrate these roles. The most effective forms of visual representation in teaching math include manipulative (cubes for adding and subtracting), flash cards, number lines and graphs of functions.

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