Teaching students with intellectual and developmental disabilities to calculate cost after discounts via schematic diagrams

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2020.103656Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Middle school students with IDD acquired, became fluent, maintained, and generalized finding the cost of an item after a discount.

  • A schematic diagram supported students in accuracy and independence in solving life-skills mathematics problems.

  • This study adds to the emerging literature that supports life skills mathematics instruction for students with developmental disabilities.

Abstract

Background/aims/methods

Life skills instruction is important for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and an emerging research base exists in which schema instruction is used to support students with IDD. In this single-case multiple probe across participants study, researchers explored the use of a schematic diagram in conjunction with the system of least prompts (SLP) to support the acquisition, fluency, maintenance, and generalization of life skills mathematics for secondary students with IDD.

Procedures/outcomes

Researchers collected data relative to student accuracy and independence in solving problems involving finding the cost of an item after a discount (i.e., sale or coupon). Researchers collected data across baseline, intervention, maintenance, and generalization phases.

Results/conclusion

Researchers found a functional relation between the intervention package and accuracy for all three students. Students were successful with the schematic diagram, however, the data for generalization to when no schema was provided were more idiosyncratic.

Implications

This research holds implications for the use of a schematic diagram to support students with IDD learning life-skills mathematical problem solving.

Section snippets

What this paper adds

This paper adds to the limited literature examining life skills mathematics problem solving for students with IDD. It also adds to the literature base regarding schema instruction for students with IDD as well as research that examines mathematics interventions that target all of the learning stages for students with IDD.

Participants

Participants were three middle school students with disabilities. The three students were all educated in the same self-contained special education mathematics class taught by the same special education teacher. The special education teacher’s classroom was denoted as one for students with mild intellectual disability, consistent with her teaching endorsement. In the state the study occurred, special education teacher licenses and programs were disability specific (such as mild intellectual

Results

A functional relation was found between the dependent variable of accuracy in solving problems involving finding the cost of an item with a discount and the intervention package of a schematic diagram and the SLP (see Fig. 3 and Table 2). The students were, in general, able to acquire the skill of solving the problems with the schema as well as maintain but not all three were able to generalize to solving the problems without use of the schema.

Discussion

This study explored the use of a schematic diagram to support the acquisition, fluency, maintenance, and generalization of life skills mathematics for secondary students with IDD. Researchers examined the intervention package of a schematic diagram and the SLP on the accuracy and independence of three middle school students with IDD as they found the cost of item after a discount was applied. For all three students a functional relation was found between the intervention package and accuracy.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Emily C. Bouck: Conceptualization, Project administration, Supervision, Methodology, Data curation, Resources, Visualization, Writing - original draft. Holly Long: Data curation, Resources, Writing - review & editing, Visualization.

References (45)

  • P. Alberto et al.

    Applied behavior analysis for teachers

    (2009)
  • E.C. Bouck

    Functional curriculum models for secondary students with mild mental impairment

    Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities

    (2009)
  • E.C. Bouck et al.

    Functional curriculum and students with mild intellectual disability: Exploring postschool outcomes through the NLTS2

    Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities

    (2012)
  • E.C. Bouck et al.

    Footsteps toward the future: A real-world focus for students with intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, and other developmental disabilities

    (2015)
  • D.M. Browder et al.

    Grade-aligned math instruction for secondary students with moderate intellectual disability

    Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities

    (2012)
  • D.M. Browder et al.

    A meta-analysis on teaching mathematics to students with significant cognitive disabilities

    Exceptional Children

    (2008)
  • D.M. Browder et al.

    Teaching students with moderate. Intellectual disability to solve word problems

    The Journal of Special Education

    (2018)
  • B.C. Collins

    Systematic instruction for students with moderate and severe disabilities

    (2012)
  • A.J. Connolly

    KeyMath-3 diagnostic assessment

    (2007)
  • S.C. Cook et al.

    Schema-based instruction for mathematical word problem solving: An evidence-based review for students with learning disabilities

    Learning Disability Quarterly

    (2019)
  • S.K. Cox et al.

    Modified schema-based instruction to develop flexible mathematics problem-solving strategies for students with autism spectrum disorder

    Remedial and Special Education

    (2018)
  • C. Creech-Galloway et al.

    Using a simultaneous prompting procedure with an iPad to teach the Pythagorean Theorem to adolescents with moderate intellectual disability

    Research and Practice for Persons With Severe Disabilities

    (2013)
  • C.T. Doabler et al.

    Explicit mathematics instruction: What teachers can do for teaching students with mathematics difficulties

    Intervention in School and Clinic

    (2013)
  • D.L. Gast et al.

    Visual analysis of graphic data

  • Y. Hua et al.

    Effects of the TIP strategy on problem solving skills of young adults with intellectual disability

    Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities

    (2015)
  • B.A. Jimenez et al.

    Teaching an algebraic equation to high school students with moderate developmental disabilities

    Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities

    (2008)
  • A.K. Jitendra et al.

    Schema-based instruction: Facilitating mathematical word problem solving for students with emotional and behavioral disorders

    Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth

    (2009)
  • A.K. Jitendra et al.

    Teaching mathematical word problem solving: The quality of evidence for strategy instruction priming the problem structure

    Journal of Learning Disabilities

    (2015)
  • J. Karl et al.

    Teaching core content embedded in a functional activity to students with moderate intellectual disability using a simultaneous prompting procedure

    Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities

    (2013)
  • V.R. Knight et al.

    Instructional practices, priorities, and preparedness for educating students with autism and intellectual disability

    Focus on Autism and Developmental Disabilities

    (2019)
  • M. LaCour et al.

    When calculators lie: A demonstration of uncritical calculator usage among college students and. Factors that improve performance

    PloS One

    (2019)
  • A. Lafay et al.

    Effects of interventions with manipulatives on immediate learning, maintenance, and transfer in children with mathematics learning disabilities: A systematic review

    Education Research International

    (2019)
  • View full text