Enhancing addition fact fluency in children with mild intellectual disabilities: simultaneous prompting with performance feedback.
Simultaneous prompting plus quick feedback gives older students with mild ID fast, lasting math fact fluency.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Sönmez et al. (2025) worked with three high-school students who have mild intellectual disability. The team used simultaneous prompting plus performance feedback to teach basic addition facts.
Each session lasted a few minutes. The teacher showed a math fact, gave the answer right away, then tested the student. After the test the student saw a chart of their speed and accuracy.
What they found
All three teens hit the fluency goal and kept the skill for at least 15 days. They stopped counting on their fingers.
The gains stayed even when the teacher stopped the prompts.
How this fits with other research
The 1996 papers by C and by R et al. laid the groundwork. They said fluency needs both speed and accuracy. Sönmez et al. show one quick way to reach that goal in math.
Shimizu et al. (2006) also used prompting, but taught mouse-clicking to preschoolers. Same method, new skill and older kids.
Robinson et al. (1981) used a different prompt style—delay—to grow language in students with ID. Both studies prove prompting works across subjects and ages.
Why it matters
You can add this package to any high-school math minute. No extra gear is needed—just flash cards, a timer, and a simple graph. Students see their own progress, so motivation stays high. Try it for any fact set: subtraction, multiplication, or even sight words.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The development of mathematical skills in students with intellectual disabilities can facilitate greater independence in everyday life. The ability to perform basic addition facts (BAFs) with fluency can facilitate the learning process of mathematics and the ability to perform quickly and correctly on a subject. This study examined the impact of simultaneous prompting with performance feedback (SP-PF) on fluency in BAFs. Three high school students with mild intellectual disabilities participated in the study, which employed a multiple-probe, across-participants design. The results demonstrated that the SP-PF effectively enhanced the participants’ fluency in BAFs to the criterion level. All participants demonstrated maintenance of their fluency levels for at least 15 days following the instruction. On day 45, two students exhibited fluency levels that were very close to the criterion. Social validity data indicated that the participants were satisfied with the study procedures and their learning outcomes. Furthermore, social comparison demonstrated significant effects. This study contributes to the literature on the effectiveness of the SP-PF intervention on fluency in BAFs in students with special needs. It shows that participants demonstrated the ability to answer facts without using their fingers.
BMC Psychology, 2025 · doi:10.1186/s40359-025-03311-w