A Father’s Journey with Autism- Chapter 13

In this blog I will discuss about the activity in which we taught Simi the Concept of Addition. Initially we started with the development of number concept from 1 to 100, forward and reverse counting, dictation of 3–4-digit numbers etc which I described in my previous blogs.

1. Concept of Addition:
Addition in math is a process of combining two or more numbers. It is one of the essential mathematical functions we use in our everyday activities.  The addition of two whole numbers results in the total amount or sum of those values combined. Giving the concept of addition to a neurodivergent child is not a simple job. This must be done in a fun way and we tried both pictorial and physical objects to give the concept of addition.

A. PICTORIAL REPRESENTATION
In this process we drew various shapes like circle/ triangle/ star/ similar letters etc and added in two sets as under:

The entire table of addition may be difficult for a child to remember so we should focus on specific section like +1 and +2 one week, before moving on to pairs that add up to 10.
One of the addition session showing the Pictorial representation by  Simi is given at picture 1 & 2  below:

                                               
   Picture-1

           
Picture-2

B. CONCEPT OF ADDITION BY OBJECTS:

In addition to pictorial representation we also used various objects like Potato, bids, carrom dots etc for development of the concept of addition. In this process placed 2 potatoes in a paper and write (TWO-2) and 3 potatoes in a different piece of paper (writtenTHREE-3). We asked Simi to put 2 Nos potato in a pot and again asked her to put another 3 numbers potato in the same pot and asked her to count the total nos of potatoes placed in the pot and after counting asked her to write the number (FIVE-5) in a paper placed below the pot.
Counting on fingers is the simplest way to start before transition to tokens, bottle caps, or paper cut outs etc. It’s best if you put visuals alongside numbers to promote association between the two.
But all the above methods could not help Simi to understand the concept of addition though she was doing the addition through rote memory only.
Then we got the help from one of the Special educators at NIPCID, Guwahati and we never forget her contribution in developing the arithmetical ability of Simi. She applied the following process:
1. Drawing picture of Fingers of Simi (two, three, four, five ,,,, up to 10) and writing the number beside the picture.
2. After drawing various nos of fingers of Simi’s own hand, asked her to show a particular number of fingers (like show me your 3 fingers, show me your 8 fingers etc.)
3. After practicing for several days Simi could able to show the correct number of fingers immediately.
4. After the above process she started teaching addition, for example,  (3+2)  . she asked Simi to-

i. keep three (3)  in your mind (pointing one of Simi’s finger in her head )
ii. 2 Fingers up (Simi had to show 2 fingers)
iii. then count the numbers forward after three(counting the two fingers shown)
iv. Then Simi started counting 4 followed by 5.
v. This was followed by writing 3+2= 5.
The above exercise continued for various combinations of numbers for sum up to 10 using her own fingers followed by writing the same on the paper.
Luckily the above method worked miraculously for Simi, and she enjoyed doing the addition of single digits up to 10.
Then she could able to do the addition of two/three digits with one digit numbers as under.
i. 54+6,( fifty-four in mind and six fingers up)
ii. Counting the numbers fifty-five forward in the six fingers shown
iii. Write the sum on the paper i.e. 54+6=60
Then there was no looking back. The same process was followed to teach her the subtraction only by applying reverse counting in fingers.
In the next blog I will write about SAVANT Skill of Simi.


To be Continued…….

Author

Srinibash Mishra