Peculiarities of Teaching Primary schoolchildren with Intellectual Disabilities to Compare Objects by Length

In today’s world, special attention is being paid to the education of children with intellectual disabilities, as their numbers are increasing, necessitating the identification of their cognitive characteristics and the development of specialized teaching methods and techniques. Specifically, this applies to comparing objects by length, which is an important component of developing mathematical skills. The problem lies in the difficulty this category of students has in mastering the conceptual foundations of comparing and measuring the length of objects. The study found that the following methods and techniques should be used to teach children with intellectual disabilities to compare objects by length: finding and demonstrating length; superposition and application techniques; using a yardstick; using a ruler; and verbalizing (naming) the result of the comparison. These techniques are implemented through joint actions by the teacher and student, followed by the student’s actions based on imitation, and finally by following a model (if necessary, with the help of verbal instructions from the teacher).