Teaching teenagers with Down syndrome
Compared with other students, teenagers with Down syndrome
need more teaching and practice in order to learn about number and maths. In order
to plan effective teaching, parents and teachers need to take account of the specific
language and cognitive profiles associated with Down syndrome (see 'A
specific developmental profile' box). Teaching strategies can then be planned
to make full use of the teenager's visual learning strengths and to compensate for
their auditory learning weaknesses. Activities, supports and teaching targets that
will influence progress are listed below and will be developed further in the following
sections of this module.
- Experience of numeracy - at home and in school through social interaction,
saying numbers with others, counting, dice games, board games, wall displays,
hearing number used during activities with everyday items and through teaching
games
- Motor skills - handling objects, construction, speech for saying numbers,
practice moving items, listening and speaking simultaneously
- Language for maths and number, including words for comparing, contrasting
and categorising
- Drawing attention to quantities in play, sports, television programmes and
daily routines, using fingers and other visual cues
- Learning to count, i.e. one word for one item when counting, knowing the
order of numbers, understanding that the last count word represents the whole
number (cardinality)
- Using a number line, hundred square and written numerals, for visual support
- Using practical materials which represent the number system visually to
support their learning
- Learning to recognise patterns, matching patterns and arranging items into
patterns
- Learning to recognise numerals, reading from a number line and a 100 square
- Using money, in practice and especially in real situations
- Using daily and weekly calendars to develop understanding of time
- Using a watch and clocks to understand time and plan ahead
Mathematics has a strong visual element and this can often
be used to illuminate meaning. Visual teaching methods include frequent use of a
number line, a 100 square, number apparatus, pictures, diagrams, graphs and computer
programs. Teenagers can often be included in maths lessons by teaching ideas that
can be shown visually, for example, geometry, ratios, fractions, data handling and
algebra. Games and puzzles, where the rules can be picked up quickly by watching
a demonstration, will also help teenagers with Down syndrome to learn and understand
mathematics. Structured teaching methods
and supports for language and memory are described later in the module.
Teenagers with Down syndrome are helped by teaching
methods which take account of research into their strengths and weaknesses:
- Their motor skill delays, making manipulating small items, drawing and
writing difficult
- Their speech and language delays, leading to their understanding being
underestimated
- Their auditory processing and working memory difficulties, making
learning from listening
difficult
- Their strengths in social understanding and enjoyment in learning from
social interaction with peers and adults
- Their relative strengths in visual processing and visual memory, making
learning from seeing important and effective;
they are visual learners
- Their strengths in using gestures to communicate and in showing their
understanding by pointing to or choosing an answer
For a full discussion of these issues, see
An overview of the development of teenagers with Down syndrome (11-16 years)