Improving early numeracy of young children with special educational needs

Difficulties with early numeracy can interfere with the acquisition of mathematics skills in later childhood. Early math intervention is therefore an important issue. Sixty-two 5- to 7-year-old pupils from kindergartens for children with special educational needs were given early mathematics intervention. The early numeracy program was specifically developed for young children with special educational needs and early numeracy difficulties by basing the instruction on perceptual gestalt theory. The results showed that the 62 children in the experimental group performed better at posttest than the 62 children in the comparison group. The children failed, however, to transfer their knowledge to novel math problems.