Schema-Based Instruction: Supporting Children with Learning Difficulties and Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

Children who have learning difficulties or intellectual disabilities have similar challenges when solving mathematical word problems, including creating an internal representation of the problem structure and organizing the information to generate a solution strategy. Students with learning difficulties in mathematics and those with intellectual disabilities benefit from mathematics instruction that incorporates visual aids and repetition, and promotes strategy flexibility to help develop conceptual understanding. With regard to mathematical word problem solving, one approach has shown promise for individuals with learning difficulties and typically developing youth. Schema-based instruction (SBI) uses visual representations to teach students the mathematical structure of word problems. In this paper, we draw on existing literature to outline some of the cognitive deficits that have been observed in children with learning difficulties in mathematics and in those with intellectual disabilities and describe the ways in which those deficits can manifest themselves in the context of mathematical problem solving. We then describe the data we collected from our own delivery of SBI to a group of students with intellectual disabilities and compared their performance to students with and without learning difficulties. We focus on instances of meaningful problem solving after the intervention, with a focus on how the students may have circumvented or compensated for specific cognitive deficiencies. We conclude the chapter with a discussion about the elements of the instruction that may account for the students’ performance after the intervention.