Functional Math Skills Teach Students to Work and Live Independently

Foundation

The bricks that lay the foundation are one to one correspondence, number recognition, skip counting and operations. One to one correspondence means simply understanding that a number represents a matching or the corresponding number of items. With number recognition, students can write the ten digits, then recognize place value: tens, ones and hundreds. Skip counting refers to counting in increments, such as 5’s and 10’s. This is especially handy for telling time and counting money. Lastly, a basic grasp of addition and subtraction is useful. This is what is meant by operations.

Time

You or I may have come to the realization that time is money. However, with our students, we want them to understand the time and tell time. Understanding means grasping the concept, knowing the difference between seconds, minutes and hours. For students with cognitive or developmental disabilities, this can mean getting “stuck” on preferred activities and missing others, like lunch. Both autistic children and their parents tend to benefit from a visual clock or a picture schedule.

Money

What is counting for if it’s not for counting money? That’s how most of us think, anyway. It is definitely one of our most important functional math skills. We begin by teaching our students to recognize pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. Next, they learn to count; first by single denomination, then with mixed coins. Eventually, most likely after the transition to the day program, lessons will involve budgets and understanding wages and paying bills.