Math Summative Project

Morgan Regular

Dr. Shaunda Wood

St. Thomas University

EDUC 5433 – Elementary Math Methods

 Annotated Bibliography: Teaching Mathematics to Students with Learning Disabilities

Through my experience in the school system, I know that mathematics can be a challenge

for many students and is often an area of struggle. This is especially true for students with

learning disabilities and, as educators, we need to be aware and knowledgeable. It is important

for teachers to be educated on different strategies and resources available that they can

incorporate into their teaching. Students with learning disabilities can find mathematics content

overwhelming as, this subject touches on a variety of skills that they are to acquire in a short

period of time. This can be taxing on students with learning disabilities as their cognitive

processes are usually functioning at a slower rate than other students. Throughout the following

annotated bibliography, I mention and describe articles and studies that I have found interesting

and useful. These articles introduce applicable teaching strategies that will help teachers make

decisions on how to teach mathematics content to children with learning disabilities.

Flores, M.M., Hinton, V.M. & Schweck, K.B. (2014). Teaching Multiplication with Regrouping

to Students with Learning Disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 29,

171-183.

This study focuses on teaching multiplication to students with learning disabilities and

studies two different models that can be implemented to help students’ progress in their

multiplication abilities. The Common Core Standards in math require that students demonstrate

conceptual knowledge of numbers, operations, and relations between mathematical concepts.

This should be the focus for any supplementary instruction of students with learning disabilities.

This article illustrates the implementation of the Concrete-Representational-Abstract (CRA)

sequence and the Strategic Instruction Model (SIM) for teaching multiplication with regrouping.
In analyzing the results, researchers found that CRA combined with SIM is shown to be effective

in teaching computation for students with specific learning disabilities and is useful in

developing conceptual understanding. The students in the study showed increased fluency to

criterion and demonstrated maintenance of these skills over time. This is a valuable study as it

shows significant results in combining these two models to teach multiplication to students with

learning disabilities. This is valuable information to have as educators as it will help us make

choices about the approach we are going to take in teaching mathematics to incorporate

differentiation, so all students have an equal opportunity at being successful.

Geary, D. (2004). Mathematics and learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 37, 4-

15.

This article discusses children with learning disabilities and the challenges they often face

in learning mathematics. It has been shown that children with learning disabilities often have

difficulty with numbers, counting, and arithmetic. In this study, the competencies of children

with learning disabilities in regard to the three previously mentioned difficulties were studied.

The children demonstrated roughly average number processing skills with simple numbers but,

they showed persistent deficits in some areas of arithmetic and counting. This study showed that

children used problem-solving procedures that are commonly used by younger children and

frequently committed procedural errors. This study goes on to say that children with learning

disabilities continue to have difficulties in retrieving arithmetic facts from long-term memory,

which did not improve over time. In addition, this study found that children with learning

disabilities had interruptions in attentional information processing. This creates challenges with

information manipulation in dealing with math language. Students with learning disabilities
require more time to process information, and this includes math content. This is a valuable

study for teachers as it can help them design their math lessons by keeping in mind the needs of

their students with exceptionalities. For example, they will know to provide students with more

time to process new information which will allow these students to have a better understanding

of concepts such as, counting and basic arithmetic.

Hord, C. & Newton, J. A. 2014. Investigating elementary mathematics curricula: focus on

` students with learning disabilities. School Science and Mathematics, 114, 191-201.

The purpose of this study was to investigate three elementary math curricula, looking at

differentiation and accessibility for students with learning disabilities. This study was

specifically focused on challenges associated with working memory and ways to provide more

opportunities for engagement among these students. Instruction that was used for this study

included an emphasis on visuals (manipulatives drawings, and diagrams), math conversations,

and developing cognitive and metacognitive skills. Researchers looked at students’ experiences

when finding the area of composite shapes as this is a task that involves multiple steps and it has

the potential of taxing working memory. Results of this study showed that teachers need to

consider how their curriculum outcomes provide effective instruction for the storage and

organization of information for these students. It is also necessary for teachers to take into

account how the outcomes develop students’ thinking processes and their overall understanding

of mathematical concepts. Given the results of the study, researchers concluded that the

curriculum areas were effective in teaching students with learning disabilities to solve multi-step

problems. However, they also stress the importance of using supplemental materials in

conjunction with the curriculum to meet the needs of students with learning disabilities. This
study gives teachers valuable information about the factors they must consider to effectively

teach students with a variety of learning disabilities.

Satsangi, R., Bouck, E.C., Taber-Doughty, T., Bofferding, L. & Roberts, C.A. (2016).

Comparing the Effectiveness of Virtual and Concrete Manipulatives to Teach Algebra to

Secondary Students with Learning Disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, 39, 240-

253.

Although my primary focus is with the elementary stream, I found this article intriguing

as it studied an area of mathematics that has not been studied previously. As the use of

technology continues to increase in classrooms, it is important be aware of the benefits of these

technologies and the effects that they can have on students and their learning environment. As

the research on virtual manipulatives is scarce, this study explores and compares the benefits of

both concrete and virtual manipulatives. This study focuses specifically on algebraic instruction

with secondary students with learning disabilities. This research studied three secondary students

using both concrete and virtual manipulatives. The study showed that all three students scored

above their average baseline levels using both forms of manipulatives. However, for two of the

three students, the concrete manipulatives earned higher scores than the virtual manipulatives.

The researchers believe that this may be due to variables such as they may have learned the

concepts covered within the instructional lessons with one of the manipulatives more so that the

other and carried this understanding into the intervention phase of the student, which increased

their performance with that particular manipulative. In addition, the researchers used a small

sample size, so it is hard to say if one type of manipulative is more beneficial than another when
teaching secondary students with learning disabilities. However, this study does prompt

interesting questions and ideas.

Shin, M., Bryant, D.P., Bryant, B.R., McKenna, J.W., Hou, F. & Ok, M. (2016). Tools for

Teaching Mathematics to Students with Learning Disabilities. Intervention in School and

Clinic, 52, 148-153.

Many students with learning disabilities have difficulty developing a conceptual

understanding of mathematical topics. In this article, researchers stress the importance of using

interactive visual models called virtual manipulatives to help students learn specific concepts and

develop the necessary skill set to understand and solve abstract and symbolic math problems.

This article discusses the benefits of using virtual manipulatives in conjunction with engaging

students in learning mathematics. There are many benefits to using virtual manipulatives as the

teacher can adjust the design features for instructional demand and increase the amount of

practice opportunities for those with learning disabilities. There are a variety of virtual

manipulatives including fraction bars, area models, and number lines that can benefit students

greatly with the addition subtraction, multiplication, and division of fractions. This article also

presents some challenges with using virtual manipulatives. For example, teachers are often not

properly trained on how to use these websites which can create some frustration and misuse of

the technology. However, these researchers found that the benefits greatly outweigh the

challenges when it comes to providing an interactive learning environment for these students

with different learning needs. They can also be used to check for understanding among students

through the use of games and quizzes. Providing students with differentiated instruction through

the use of virtual manipulatives helps all students be successful in a mathematics classroom and
provides new and exciting opportunities for these students. Questions about the benefits of both

concrete and virtual manipulatives promotes further interest into virtual manipulatives. One

conclusion that this study can make is that, regardless of the type, manipulatives are absolutely

essential for the learning of mathematics and should be present in every math class.

Watt, S.J., Watkins, J.R. & Abbitt, J. (2014). Teaching Algebra to Students with Learning

Disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 49, 437-447.

This review studies past research looking at effective interventions for teaching algebra to

students with learning disabilities. It evaluates the complexity and alignment of skills with

Common Core State Standards in math. The review of 15 studies on teaching algebra to students

with learning disabilities found that practices need to continue to place emphasis on early

intervention of pre-algebra skills and higher-level content standards for students at higher levels

of education. This study also found that we need to change how we deliver core instruction so

that all students have access to grade level math content. This means continuing to use formative

assessment to understand the needs of individual students’ and use differentiation to match

instruction to those needs. It also means continuing to use standardized measures to analyze

students’ growth throughout mathematical content. In conjunction to these two forms of

assessment, this study also stresses the importance of using instructional components to teach

mathematics, specifically algebra, effectively. The overall highlight of this study was to stress

the importance of research in this area and the need for this research to include strong

descriptions of students as well as intervention characteristics. Most importantly, researchers

need to share their findings with educators to spread the knowledge so that both teachers and

students can be successful in their roles in the education system.

 References

Flores, M.M., Hinton, V.M. & Schweck, K.B. (2014). Teaching Multiplication with Regrouping

to Students with Learning Disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 29,

171-183.

Geary, D. (2004). Mathematics and learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 37, 4-

15.

Hord, C. & Newton, J. A. 2014. Investigating elementary mathematics curricula: focus on

students with learning disabilities. School Science and Mathematics, 114, 191-201.

Satsangi, R., Bouck, E.C., Taber-Doughty, T., Bofferding, L. & Roberts, C.A. (2016).

Comparing the Effectiveness of Virtual and Concrete Manipulatives to Teach Algebra to

Secondary Students with Learning Disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, 39, 240-

253.

Shin, M., Bryant, D.P., Bryant, B.R., McKenna, J.W., Hou, F. & Ok, M. (2016). Tools for

Teaching Mathematics to Students with Learning Disabilities. Intervention in School and

Clinic, 52, 148-153.

Watt, S.J., Watkins, J.R. & Abbitt, J. (2014). Teaching Algebra to Students with Learning

Disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 49, 437-447.