Texas Interagency Council for Early Childhood Intervention

Students with learning disabilities (LD), along with all other students, need opportunities to apply what they have been taught. This is especially true in the area of mathematics where many students receive instruction that does not provide application opportunities. Moreover, students often find it difficult to see the relevance of what they are being taught. For example, when students are acquiring a new math skill they may perceive the task as time consuming and tedious, without purpose and relevance to their daily lives. However, when students are made aware of how purpose and relevance are related and how much math we apply in daily living, they may begin to accept that becoming proficient in a skill requires practice and reinforcement and is a necessary part of effective math instruction. Sound instructional practice includes appropriate techniques that are associated with the stages of learning — acquisition, proficiency, generalization, and maintenance. At the acquisition stage, learning involves activities that help students establish an initial understanding of new material. During the proficiency stage, students should experience activities that increase their mastery of the material being taught. Generalization implie