Number Sense and Special Education

Math instruction is so hard for some special education students.  Every time I think of the challenge we educators face teaching math, I think of this video.  It makes me laugh every time I see it.  You can follow their funny videos by following them here.

So we have all been here right!  We have felt the extreme frustration of desperately wanting to meet the needs of a student but our method just isn't getting results.  When you have to resort to using your fingers for counting you have exhausted your tool kit and are starting to border on desperation.  But teaching basic math number sense does not have to be this frustrating. 

In the 16 years that I have been working with and teaching special education students, I have never come across a better system for teaching all things numbers than Touch Math.  Using this program has helped so many of my students find success with numbers, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and money. 

Understanding the system of dots and how to count them forward and backward, make a huge difference for students that use to look at numbers like this...

The dots eliminate the embarrassment of using your fingers to count.  Touch Math uses dots drawn on the numbers to help students count the value of each digit.  Then as students advance their knowledge and skills with the program, they learn to skip count.  This leads to an easier understanding of multiplication and division.  Then you can use Touch Math's money system to learn to count coins! 

I love it!  Now, Touch Math is an entire comprehensive curriculum and there is so much more to it than the Touch Points and Skip Counting Touch Points that I am so fond of using in the classroom.  For special education students, I believe that you can transfer that part of the system to any curriculum that your school is using.  They also have some great resources on TPT for individual teachers that do not have access to Touch Math in their school or cannot afford the program.  

I have a Touch Money adapted book on my TPT store for sale.  It is a great introduction or review on coins and how to count money using touch points. I am working on several more materials that will be uploaded to my store soon.  I use this system every day and LOVE the results that I see from my students.  They are so proud when they can learn new skills that seemed so foreign to them before this adapted way of learning was introduced.  CHECK IT OUT!!!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Blauvelt-Babbles