Winnie teaches a five-step daily counting routine from Greer and Erikson's research for students with significant cognitive disabilities who use AAC. The routine cycles through numbers 1-10 in 15 minutes daily, building four essential skills: recognizing number names, understanding sequence, one-to-one correspondence, and cardinality. She demonstrates with a student using eye-gaze and a fish counting activity.
Let's talk counting with AAC users. My name is Winnie, and I am a teacher in an elementary self-contained classroom, and today I want to briefly summarize an article by Greer and Erikson called Teaching Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities to Count. Now, this article focuses on how we can better teach early math skills to students with significant cognitive disabilities and including our students who use AAC devices. Now, the authors explain that counting is much more than just memorizing numbers. It is a foundational skill that supports later math learning and everyday life skills. However, many students with significant cognitive disabilities, they struggle with counting because instruction often focuses only on rote skills or functional tasks. Instead of helping students truly understand numbers. Now the article highlights these 4 important counting concepts. Recognizing and using number names, that one's probably the easiest. Understanding the count sequence, gets a little bit more complicated. This one-to-one correspondence, and then cardinality. That's the meaning, understanding the last number counted It tells us how many. So to teach these skills, the authors developed a 15-minute daily counting routine that repeats over time using these numbers 1 through 10. So the routine has 5 steps. The first thing you're gonna do is students will identify the target number. Then they count collections of objects. The third thing is they make their own collections. Fourth, they compare groups as more, fewer, or the same. And then the fifth, finally they count to tell how many. Now what makes this routine effective is that it combines this repetition, the structure, and multiple ways for students to participate. AAC users can respond by selecting numbers on their device, pointing to symbols, using their eye gaze, or other accessible methods. The focus is on mathematical understanding, not speech. So for example, if the target is 4, the teacher might give students 4 blocks to count. The students point to each block while counting, then use their AAC device to select the number 4. Next, they create their own group of 4 objects and they compare it with another group to determine which has more or fewer. Now this keeps the lessons hands-on, visual, and communication-rich. The main takeaway from this article is that students with significant cognitive disabilities and AAC users can learn meaningful math concepts when instruction is structured, repeated, and accessible. AAC should never be viewed as a barrier to math learning., but as tools that help students show what they know. So let's see how this could look with your AAC user. Alright, so today what number are we working on? Can you go to your numbers page? And look right here, what number are we working on?
4.
That's right. So now let's count our fish. Ready?
1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4.
That's right, we have 4 fish. So now I only want 4 fish. Can you count 4 fish? Count 4. 1.
1. 2.
What comes after 2?
3.
And 4. That's right. I just want 4 fish.
1, 2, 3, 4.
Very good. So now you have your group of 4 fish that you counted out, and I have my group of fish. Could you look at these 2 groups How would you describe your group of 4? If you go to the more section, you could describe it as more or less. How would you describe your group of 4? Less. I agree. That is definitely less. And my group is more. Alright, can you tell me how many fish you have?
1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4.
That's right. So how many fish do you have? You have—
5.
Ooh, let's look again. You have 1, 2, 3, 4. So how many fish do you have?
4.
That's right, great job. This AAC user has been using her device for about 3.5 years and she's pretty confident with her counting, but these 5 simple steps provide hands-on, visual, and communication-rich counting practices. I have linked the Greer and the Erikson article below in the description section, and you can check out this article at your local library through the ERIC database. ERIC is a free education research database that's funded by the U.S. Department of Education. You just need your library card. So to learn more about helping AAC users and to develop math or literacy concepts, I encourage you to look right here on the Autism Helper YouTube channel.
