About See and Learn Numbers
See and Learn Numbers is a teaching programme designed to help children with Down syndrome learn basic number skills and concepts. It may also be helpful for other children with similar language or cognitive delays.
See and Learn Numbers is designed to teach young children to learn to count, to link numbers to quantity, to understand important concepts about the number system and to calculate with numbers up to 10. It also teaches early mathematical concepts important for understanding space, time and measurement - including colour, size, shape, ordering, sorting and patterns.
Informed by research
The teaching activities presented in See and Learn Numbers follow recommended, evidence-based practice in number and maths teaching for all children, with some adaptations to meet the learning needs of children with Down syndrome.
The programme teaches number skills in small steps, and provides many opportunities for practice to consolidate learning. Number concepts are presented with clear, visual representations. Teaching activities are designed to minimise distraction and reduce working memory and language demands to make it easier to focus on the learning tasks. See and Learn Numbers may also be helpful for other children for whom similar adaptations are beneficial.
For home and school
See and Learn programmes include step-by-step instructions, ready-to-use teaching materials, and all the information needed to understand and implement them. They are designed to be easy for parents to use at home.
See and Learn programmes are also suitable for use in early intervention services, nurseries, preschools and schools.
Steps
We currently plan 3 steps for See and Learn Numbers.
See and Learn First Counting
See and Learn First Counting is designed to teach children to say the number words, to recognise the numerals, to link quantities to numbers, to count, and to understand the concepts of cardinality and equivalence for the numbers 1 to 10. See and Learn First Counting is also designed to teach the key maths language needed at this stage of number learning.
Children who are working through the activities in See and Learn First Counting can also be working through the activities in See and Learn First Concepts.
Children who have completed See and Learn First Counting are ready to move on to See and Learn First Sums.
See and Learn First Concepts
See and Learn First Concepts is designed to teach children about space, shapes and measurement (geometry). See and Learn First Concepts includes activities to teach children about shapes, colours, sizes, ordering, comparing, sorting and sequences. It also teaches the language needed to talk about these concepts.
Children can work through the activities in See and Learn First Concepts while also working though the activities in See and Learn First Counting or See and Learn First Sums.
See and Learn First Sums
See and Learn First Sums is designed to teach children with Down syndrome to add, subtract, multiply and divide with numbers and quantities from 1 to 10. It is also designed to teach children more about the number system, including the relative sizes of these numbers, ordinality and inversion. See and Learn First Sums is also designed to teach the language needed at this stage of number learning.
Children who have completed See and Learn First Counting are ready to start See and Learn First Sums, and can do so while working through the activities in See and Learn First Concepts.
Working with other See and Learn programmes
See and Learn Numbers can be used alongside See and Learn Speech, See and Learn Language and Reading and See and Learn Memory as children will be progressing in all these areas throughout childhood.
Working with other resources
See and Learn First Counting teaches and assesses basic counting skills and understanding of numbers. It is important that children master these procedures and concepts with the numbers 1 to 10 using a variety of items to count.
We recommend that children are taught early number skills using sets of identical items. This is why we include simple black counters in the See and Learn Numbers kits and apps.
As the children begin to master these skills, they can be encouraged to count other items. Our apps include options to vary the shape and colour of counters. Children can also practice counting everyday objects and using the counters included in other teaching resources.
As children progress through the activities in See and Learn First Sums, other number teaching systems (for example, Numicon) may also be useful for helping the children to understand the relationships between numbers, quantities, addition and subtraction.
