Special Education Schools
Numicon is a multi-sensory, concrete teaching approach to mathematics that can be particularly effective for students with special educational needs. It uses structured shapes and patterns to represent numbers, making it easier for students to understand number relationships and patterns. Many special education schools around Australia use Numicon making Maths education accessible to all students.
Visual and Tactile Learning:
The physical shapes and patterns in Numicon provide a concrete and visual representation of abstract number concepts, which can be beneficial for students who learn best through these senses.
Pattern Recognition:
Numicon emphasises the identification and understanding of patterns, which can help students develop a deeper understanding of number relationships and mathematical concepts.
Multi-Sensory Approach:
By involving action, imagery, and conversation, Numicon engages multiple senses, which can be particularly helpful for students who benefit from multi-sensory learning.
Structured Learning:
The structured approach of Numicon provides a clear framework for learning and can help students feel more secure and confident in their ability to learn mathematics.
We recommend the Breaking Barriers Teacher Handbook to support students in developing understandings related to the Big Ideas in number.
The Breaking Barriers teaching materials:
- provide practical solutions to students’ difficulties
- support teachers in their assessment, planning and teaching
- builds early number skills, numerosity (awareness of the number of objects in a set), counting, identifying patterns, and early computation.
- provide ideas for differentiation
- supports mathematical language
- outlines connecting activities and application
- links learning to the Assessment tools.
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BREAKING BARRIERS The Numicon Breaking Barriers Teaching Pack comprises a Teaching Handbook and an Assessment and Photocopy Masters book for teachers of children who experience difficulties learning maths. The pack provides step-by-step activities and practice, with planning support and assessment, alongside expert advice with activities exploring the big ideas in number from Foundation to early year 3. The Assessment and Photocopy Masters book contains Assessment Signposts, an Individual Record of Progress and a Child Profile as well as Photocopy Masters to support the activities in the Teaching Handbook. The Breaking Barriers Resource is effective in special education settings, supported by the Numicon Teaching Handbooks from Foundation to Year 6. |