Success Story: 
Charlotte age 16 has Down syndrome.
In her GCSE year, Charlotte sat National Examinations at Entry Level and passed Entry Level 1 for Mathematics, and Science. She passed English and food Technology at Entry Level 2 and received a GCSE pass for Art.
My sole purpose in wishing to help my daughter to develop her maths skills, is very simple – I believe that she has to develop numerical understanding and arithmetic operations within the range of numbers 1 to 100 in order to learn two crucial skills that will give her a better quality of life in adulthood - namely learning to tell the time and being able to handle money. When a teacher said to me that I had to accept that because of her syndrome, she may never be able to grasp the concept of number, I was horrified. I remember saying “I can’t accept that, because I believe we can teach her but so far, we haven’t managed to find the right key to open the numeracy door.”
 Many readers will know about my daughter’s struggle to grasp basic numbers skills. For those who are not aware of the history; at aged 10 she had a reading age of 9, social and behavioural skills were developing nicely but her maths age was still around age 4. The number system was too abstract, and therefore numbers were meaningless. She worked with methods and procedures without gaining conceptual understanding. And of course, when revisited, it had gone!
My finding Structured apparatus and teaching was the breakthrough. Suddenly the number patterns began to reveal insight into the number system. Progress was evident, and her confidence and self esteem, which was almost none existent for this subject, began to develop. At last we were getting somewhere.
For the past three years I used Stern’s Structural Arithmetic teaching with its wide range of apparatus, which includes two sets of number representations for the numbers 1 – 10. The first, in the form of 2cm unit blocks of varying lengths and the second, a set of pattern boards 1 – 10 used with unit cubes. The structure of the patterns; invented by mathematician Dr Catherine Stern, are based on the characteristics of odd and even numbers. We moved into teen numbers using the 20-tray, which is specifically designed to show relational understanding of the basic facts to 10. Children clearly see that the same ordered blocks 1 – 10, are now sitting on top of a base of ten 10-blocks. They ‘see’ that the same facts in base 10 hold true in the structure of the teen numbers. Using the Dual board for 2-place value we were able to transfer basic facts to higher decades up to 100. The number track provides opportunities to see the same topic worked on in the dual board in a different light, thus aiding the transfer of conceptual understanding. The Number Track is also used to teach multiplication and division facts. Stern Kit B and Teachers Manual 3
In year 10 (aged 15) I took the Stern apparatus into Charlotte’s school and in discussions with the Maths Teacher, we worked together to help charlotte prepare for her national exams. We had one year to work through the contents of the exam paper. School provided me with the teaching schemes, and I found the relevant teaching in Sterns programmes. We both worked there first. It was important to give Charlotte the best opportunity to ‘see’ what was being taught using concrete apparatus as it makes everything so visible. Having only one year to prepare was a humongous task as it was necessary to straddle two Stern programmes which was not ideal. The premise of Stern is that topics are taught in small steps building on the previous, so gaps in Charlottes understanding were inevitable. Nevertheless I was so proud of her ability to sustain the level of input required. Mind you bribery ran rife, (which included a new keyboard with a microphone!) and I became very creative in helping to maintain her levels of enthusiasm for the task!
Note: One of the hardest elements to tackle was the maths language and should be given much more of a focus, as the maths skill may be in place but the language used within the curriculum may not give the pupil the necessary associations, as was the case with Charlotte.
Maths Teacher Jane Powell said: “...We used the Stern programme to support the Number Strand of the Entry Level Maths Course. The school worked with Charlotte’s mother, providing copies of the Scheme of Work, sample test papers and kept her informed of the topics being covered. Charlotte was then able to continue her work at home. Using the Stern equipment: the Number Track, Dual board and 20-Tray provided both visual and kinaesthetic learning experiences. The short term targets and frequent repetition of Stern’s programme was also ideally suited to Charlotte’s style of learning. We learned a great deal from using this programme. In particular, maths language – we felt that there is a need to begin linking the language of the National Curriculum at a much earlier stage because this left Charlotte at a disadvantage in the public exam. Nevertheless, Stern was a significant factor in Charlotte’s success in gaining the Entry Level qualification.”
Post Testing: Charlotte is now at Yeovil College in Somerset and has settled into her daily routines. She continues to study basic skills in more practical ways and is also learning about skills for life. (Seeing the ironing pile disappear more quickly now is an absolute joy!). She has also enrolled on the Drama Course and is playing a 'detective' in her first play.
For me, I see that my long term goals are now in sight. – learning to tell the time (firmly in place) whilst Charlotte still has a way to go regarding handling money, she is showing signs of emerging concepts. We are currently going through Stern Book 3 activities for money, (which are offered in Sterling, Euros and US Dollars), and I create many practical opportunities for Charlotte to use money. For example; she will make a list of some grocery items I need, we then estimate the prices of each, write them down and arrive at an approximate total, which is then rounded up to the nearest pound. From that she tells me how much money I have given her to pay for the items, we then calculate the amount of change she will receive. When Charlotte returns with the goods and receipt, we go over the bill together as a reinforcement of our estimating skills! Practise, practise, practise, lots of discussion, lots of praise, with the occasional Mars Bar added to the list! or is a separate trip to the shop (more practise!!) which she is happy to do.
Vikki Horner 2006
Anyone wishing to pursue a similar route with their son or daughter can contact me on vikki.horner@mathsextra.com or by telephone on 01747 861 503. Vikki. |
