Developing Number Sense and Basic Computational Skills in Students with Special Needs

This article presents an investigation of the effectiveness of procedures undertaken to develop number sense and basic computational skills in learning disabled students. Twelve students in a K-1 classroom who had been identified as learning disabled (LD) were presented tasks which required them to subitize (i.e., recognize the number of objects in a set without actually counting them). Consistent with other such studies in special education, a qualitative research methodology was employed, involving a case study of an intact group of LD students. Also consistent with many such studies in special education, observational rather than quantitative data were collected. At the end of a four-week period, all students were consistently successful in recognizing and matching the numbers 0 through 5 and adding sums to five as determined on a teacher-administered test. Increased time-on-task and pupil independence also are reported. Suggestions for further instructional research related to other arithmetic skills are presented.