Basic Concepts
For students to understand and work with formal mathematical concepts successfully,
they must understand the concepts of classification, conservation, seriation, ordering
and one-to-one correspondence. Students must first work with and understand these
concepts on the basis of quality (e.g., attributes such as shape, size, weight) before
moving on to their application to general quantity (e.g., attributes such as many, few,
none) and then on to number (e.g., attributes such as "fiveness", 100=10x10,
4+1=1+4.
In order for students to develop their innate number sense, and a working knowledge
of the above concepts, they must have a great variety of interactions with their
environment, exploring and manipulating, comparing, arranging and rearranging real
objects and sets of objects. Many of these types of interactions and experiences occur
incidentally for sighted children, but the blind child is at great risk for missing
valuable and relevant incidental information. Therefore, it is critical that teachers and
parents provide both structured and informal opportunities to handle and explore, note
likenesses and differences, match, group and classify, order, and experience other
relationships with real objects to prepare them for understanding the same
relationships with numbers.
One of the earliest concepts to be developed is that of classification. Classification
involves discrimination, matching, and grouping or categorizing according to
attributes and attribute values. A sampling of these attributes and attribute values at
the quality level follows:
Shape (square, circle, triangle, rectangle)
Size (large, small, big, little)
Weight (heavy, light)
Length (short, long)
Width (wide, narrow, thick, thin)
Height (tall, short)
At the quantity level, these attributes would involve general number concepts (e.g.,
many, few, more, less, none), and later, more specific number values (e.g., sets of 2,
sets of 10, sets of values greater than 2).
The development of classification concepts involves several sequential stages:
a. discriminating between same and different (note: if a child has difficulty with
the dichotomy of same/different, the dichotomy of same/not same may be more
effective to begin with); attention should be called to the critical features of
objects and their attributes;
b. matching, grouping and categorizing according to specific criteria; and
c. classifying according to a variety of dimensions.
To promote the development of classification concepts, the teachers can:
Begin working on simple discrimination and matching with objects that are
familiar to the child and that occur naturally in his or her world (e.g., shoes,
toothbrush, squeeze toys, blocks, etc.), then move on to noting and analyzing
specific attributes (e.g., shape, size); later, those specific attributes can be
applied to naturally occurring objects in the environment (e.g., circle shape of a
plate).
Provide numerous opportunities for the child to handle and explore objects,
note their critical features or attributes of shape, size, position in space, length,
etc.
Provide many opportunities for the child to match objects, and build groupings
or sets of objects on the basis of specific attributes.
Follow a logical or Piagetian sequence with regard to matching, grouping or
categorizing, and later classifying: start with a single criteria or attribute by
which to discriminate or group (e.g., shape/circle), change to a different criteria
(e.g., small/large), progress to two attributes simultaneously (e.g., small circle),
add additional attributes (e.g., small thin circle), and finally discriminate
according to attributes NOT present (e.g., item that is not round, not small).
Another basic concept that children must understand is that of seriation, or ordering
objects, then quantities, and eventually numbers, according to specific given criteria.
As with the concept of classification, the child must begin working in this area with
real objects on the basis of quality (e.g., ordering family members' shoes or belts
according to attributes such as length). Only then will the child be able to apply the
concept to quantity (e.g., ordering jars of coins or chains of keys–one having many,
one having several, one having few and one having one or none), and later to number
(e.g., ordering the numerals 2,10, 3, 5). The concepts of classification and seriation
can be taught in conjunction with each other very effectively. For example, after the
child can match and sort according to size, he or she can work on ordering from
largest to smallest.
In addition to the understanding of the concepts of classification and seriation, the
child must develop an understanding of conservation-knowing that a given amount
remains the same though its appearance may change. Also, as with classification and
seriation, the concept of conservation must be developed first with real objects (e.g., a
bowl of cake mix is the same amount as when it is divided into 12 cup cakes). This
must be understood before a child can be expected to understand the "partners" that
make up numbers (10=5+5, 10=7+3, 10=6+4), units of measurement and money (a
nickel is the same amount as five pennies), fractions (one whole is the same amount as
two halves or four quarters) or the associative principle (7x3 equals the same as 3x7).
In addition to the concepts of classification, seriation, and conservation, children need
to understand basic spatial and positional concepts. For example, the concepts of top,
bottom, around, middle, center, corner, line, straight, curved, next to, beside, are very
relevant to basic mathematical understanding. Later, concepts such as diagonal,
parallel, perpendicular, intersecting, angles, and rotating will be relevant. Positional
ordering concepts are also critical for sorting, for seriation, and for working with sets;
these include concepts such as first, second, third, next, last, before, and after.
However, these concepts require basic counting ability.
When teaching any of these basic concepts, it is important to start with real three
dimensional objects, progressing to two dimensional shapes or diagrams and finally to
more symbolic representations. It is also advantageous to have students develop the
ability to express their discriminations in complete sentences (e.g., "These are the
same because they are both square," or "This is the longest belt.") because doing so
helps them to focus their attention on the concept rather than simply naming a
descriptor.
Activities for teaching basic concepts
Involve children in daily living activities around the home or classroom. For
example, helping to put silverware away in a divided tray with a sample in each
section provides practice in matching, sorting and categorizing; helping to sort
different sizes of towels or different items of clothing provides additional
practice with these concepts.
Give children numerous opportunities to use everyday items for matching and
categorizing: eating utensils, grooming tools, foods, and toys for function;
shoes and shoelaces for matching by size or length.
To work on seriation, have children arrange boots belonging to family or class
members from smallest to largest size; boots could also be arranged by height.
The same type of activity could be carried out with other personal items such as
belts of different lengths, books of different thicknesses, milk cartons of
different sizes, or later with Unifix towers or Cuisenaire blocks. Students
should not only identify the "extremes" of a series (e.g., longest or shortest), but
also the "next shorter".
Having family members or class members line up according to height can also
help to facilitate understanding of seriation.
Provide chances for children to work with the concept of conservation: give
them a ball of clay and let them divide it into smaller amounts as they wish, and
then combine the smaller shapes to demonstrate the constancy of amount.
Using a sorting tray, place a variety of small items (buttons, paper clips, keys)
in the larger section; to categorize, place one of each type of item in each of the
smaller sections of the tray and have the child match and sort the remaining
items; to classify, have the child form his or her own groups without providing
a model. This activity could also be done using attribute blocks.
Have children fold stiff fabric and paper to make different shapes. Squares can
be folded to make triangles or smaller squares. Later, origami can be used to
facilitate understanding of geometry.
Children can explore shapes and size by building with Legos and Unifix
blocks; they can also work with conservation by making a variety of different
groupings from a given number of blocks.
Have children copy simple shapes on geoboards; later they can make their own
shapes based on names or clues such as "four corners", etc.
Provide children with opportunities to explore and compare the three-
dimensional shapes from Essential Geometric Forms which can be gotten from
the American Printing House for the Blind.
Have children walk, hop, run, jump through an obstacle course made from
large shapes on frames, available from several children's catalogs, or arranged
from items in the natural environment (e.g., jump 3 times in the circle, hop
through the square, step in and out of the triangle).
Use shapes, sizes, orders, patterns, planes, and eventually numbers in the real
life environment (classroom, home) to teach concepts (e.g., compare the size of
books to each other and to the size of tables, use corners of rooms to
demonstrate angles, etc.).
To practice positional ordering, have a student line up the rest of the children in
a group, and then identify each as first, second, third, . . . last. Also have the
student identify which child is before or after a particular individual, which one
is next, etc. Children can also do the same activity by arranging toy cars or
other manipulatives.
