The effectiveness of Korean number naming on insight into numbers in Dutch students with mild intellectual disabilities.
Saying numbers the Korean way lifts basic number sense up to 20 in students with mild ID.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Teachers tried a new way to say numbers. They used Korean words that show the ten-structure clearly. Dutch students with mild intellectual disability joined the lessons.
The study checked number insight before and after the lessons. No control group was used. The focus was on numbers 1-20 and 21-100.
What they found
After the lessons, students understood numbers 1-20 better. The Korean naming helped them see how tens and ones fit together.
The gain stopped at 20. Insight into numbers 21-100 did not improve.
How this fits with other research
Mononen et al. (2014) also used direct math lessons. Their RightStart program helped kindergarteners with specific language impairment catch up in counting. Both studies show short, clear lessons work for kids at risk.
Heinicke et al. (2012) got typical kids to 100% number ID with taped numbers. Their tool was faster but only covered 0-9. H et al. went deeper into place value, yet only up to 20.
Kleemans et al. (2011) found kids with SLI had weak logical operations. H et al. show that even when logic is hard, a language tweak can still lift early number sense.
Why it matters
You can borrow the Korean naming trick tomorrow. Say "ten-three" instead of "thirteen" when you teach place value. It costs nothing and may give your learners with mild ID a quick win on 1-20. Keep the goal small: once they master 1-20, move to new strategies for bigger numbers.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Try calling 13 "ten-three" during today’s place-value drill and track correct responses.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Children from Asian countries score higher on early years' arithmetic tests than children from Europe or the United States of America. An explanation for these differences may be the way numbers are named. A clear ten-structure like in the Korean language method leads to a better insight into numbers and arithmetic skills. This assumption forms the basis of the current study. METHOD: Examined is whether an intervention with number naming in the Korean way influences number awareness of students with mild intellectual disabilities (N=70; mean age: 9;0 years). RESULTS: The results indicate a positive effect of this alternative method of number naming on the insight into numbers up to 20. However, the effect did not generalize to insight into numbers 21-100. CONCLUSIONS: The Korean method of number naming seems to be a promising way to teach students with mild intellectual disabilities insight into numbers.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2011 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.03.028