Math Talks can be a great way to build Number Sense for kids. But does it work for kids with Autism?

Math Talks, "Show your work" or "Multiple ways to solve a problem" are common ways we think of building Math Fact fluency and flexibility for kids. But what happens when Language skills - both verbal and written - come in the way? With Autistic kids (and even kids with say, Dyslexia), this can be a problem. 

Math and Language

A lot of Math instruction also includes language. Progressive Math learning techniques focus on building context and including real world examples to build this context for kids when doing Math problems. 

However, when kids struggle with language skills, this can become a barrier for them in understanding the Math, even if they could have developed the Math skills independently. 

​This thread on Reddit shares the example - 

Jane, Henry and Beth have a bag of 20 chocolates. Jane gets 1/4, Henry gets 1/2 and Beth gets the rest. How many do each of them have?


Kids with Autism can also have problems with explaining how they arrived at a solution - especially for simpler problems. This can be a major problem in doing Math Talks with them. 

Math Talks presents another challenge - it is often done in groups. And Kids yet to learn social skills can struggle in a group context. 

Dr. Anna Stokke has a brilliant interview with Dr. Katharine Beals (author of several books including Students with Autism) on this subject. 

Some key excerpts from the interview - 

Anna Stokke: Now given that math can be a strength for students with autism, yet verbal skills can lag behind, what is the impact of language-heavy math programs for these students?

Katharine Beals: Not good. So what's unfortunately happening is you have a subject that is potentially autism-friendly, autism accessible, a way for these kids to feel successful, potential entry point to a career that is being made less autism-friendly, less accessible that potentially is a subject where someone who even someone who could be quite successful in math may not get good grades, may not get good test scores if the tests require verbal explanations, may not get mathematically challenged may not get opportunities that perhaps they once had. So that's a huge concern.

Anna Stokke: Okay, what about “show your work,” though?

Katharine Beals: Well, that I think is a completely different thing. So, and I think it's a good thing for hard problems, not for, you know, simple problems that you might do in your head. These kids can do a lot in their head and there's a lot of rote learning that they just do on their own without any necessarily any encouragement by teachers.

Penmanship is not something that individuals with autism are naturally good at. There's, there are fine motor challenges in autism. So the problem we ran into with showing your work, later on when it actually made sense to do that, was that he couldn't see what he couldn't understand what he'd written and so he couldn't see the silly mistakes he'd made here or there.

In a nutshell - 

  • When the development or demonstration of Math skills is dependent on non-Math skills such as Language or Group skills, kids even with higher potential for Math can struggle and lose confidence. 
  • Techniques like "Show your work" or "Math Talks" can work against kids who have autism and are yet to develop language or social skills. This can also affect the way they solve word problems. 

What does Autism-friendly Math class look like? 

So what's the solution? Do we just throw away all language in a Math class?

The solution could be going back to basics - Katharine suggests. If the Math lessons are made independent of social or 


It partly depends on whether you're talking about an autistic support or a general ed classroom. And of course, there, there are constraints on just how much you can adjust a general ed classroom. But some very basic things are in terms of the distractions, you know, minimize the clutter, minimize the noise if possible and then in terms of the instructional mode and the great thing is these are things that will benefit everybody, right? So structure, focus on the direct instruction and the precision teaching sorts of elements that are good for everybody.

Try to factor out the language and the social from the stuff that doesn't require inherently the language and the social, like math. Allow these kids to excel at the stuff that they can excel in and feel good about because so much of school is going to be challenging for them. Let those on the spectrum who are able and motivated to get ahead in math. And just in general, find ways to create structure, spell things out, minimize the group activities, and, to the extent possible, get the language and the social components addressed separately and instead of having them be barriers to the learning process.

Programs Compatible with this Approach

Katharine recommends that Math learning - especially for kids who have difficulty with language and social context - should focus on building Math skills without having to rely too heavily on other skills such as language or writing. 

She suggests that something like Singapore Math helps. Things like bar modeling for word problems which is very visual, help a lot. 


Technology can help too - Monster Math also does a similar job - focusing on the visuals and the concrete representations of Math, and not letting language get in the way of Math Learning.