Teaching Methods to Build the Numeracy Skills of Preschoolers with Disabilities and Complex Communication Needs

This project explored the use of a curriculum that incorporates naturalistic and explicit instructional approaches through literature and direct teaching moments on the numeracy skills of three students with disabilities and complex communication needs. The numeracy skills targeted included patterning and sorting, shape discrimination, and quantity discrimination. This project took place during Extended School Year (ESY), a program that extends the traditional school year to provide services to students with disabilities. Student present levels and progress were assessed through a pretest and posttest given on the first and last days of ESY, in addition to progress monitoring data taken during each ESY session. Findings from this project helped me become a better educator of preschoolers with disabilities and complex communication needs by increasing my knowledge of ways to teach early numeracy skills.