Increasing Efficiency in Mathematics: Teaching Subitizing to Students with Moderate Intellectual Disability

摘要

Subitizing is an early numeracy mathematical skill where students are able to state the quantity of something without counting. This mathematical skill is more efficient than counting with one-to-one correspondence and leads to increased addition speed and accuracy. As more research emerges showing students with moderate and severe intellectual disability can learn mathematical concepts, there is a need for addressing efficiency. A single-case, multiple probe across participants design was used to investigate the effects of simultaneous prompting on subitizing and addition problem solving speed on three students with moderate intellectual disability. Visual analysis of baseline, intervention, and maintenance phase data indicated a functional relationship between simultaneous prompting and subitizing, and statistical analysis (Tau-U) further supported this with a large effect. This also led to increasing the speed with which addition problems were solved. In accordance with previous research on the use of systematic instruction (i.e., simultaneous prompting), students with intellectual disability can benefit from learning mathematical strategies to support their conceptual understanding and mathematical fluency. Future research and implications for practices are discussed.