Teaching students with intellectual and developmental disabilities to calculate cost after discounts via schematic diagrams.
Schematic diagrams plus least-to-most prompting reliably teach secondary students with IDD to calculate sale prices.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Green et al. (2020) worked with three high-school students who had intellectual or developmental disabilities. The team wanted to see if schematic diagrams plus least-to-most prompts could teach discount math. They used a multiple-baseline design across students in a special-ed classroom.
What they found
All three students learned to figure out sale prices with the diagrams. Accuracy jumped when the schema was present. Without the diagram, performance varied, but the skill held for most students.
How this fits with other research
Sureshkumar et al. (2024) extends the same prompting logic to telehealth video. They taught first-aid skills to kids with IDD and saw big, lasting gains, showing the method travels across settings and topics.
Chou et al. (2007) used constant-time-delay on a SMART Board to teach sight words. Both studies sit in the same prompting-and-fading family, but one targets reading and the other math.
Annable et al. (1979) is an older cousin. They chained sewing steps with graduated prompts for teens with ID. The core idea—break the task and fade help—matches the new math study.
Why it matters
If you run a secondary classroom for students with IDD, schematic diagrams paired with least-to-most prompts give you a quick path to life-math skills. Draw the diagram, start with minimal help, and add cues only when needed. The tool is cheap, students like the visuals, and you can move to real store ads once they master worksheets.
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02At a glance
03Original 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.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2020 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2020.103656