SAP Community Involvement

The Voices for Down Syndrome Galway Committee secured funding to increase the use of Numicon as a maths aid for our DSI Galway Branch members. This funding was awarded from SAP Ireland, a multinational software company who have locations in Galway and Dublin.

This Numicon Project aims to improve numeracy outcomes for children with Down syndrome in Galway by providing a Numicon kit to their school along with training for parents and teachers.

What is Numicon? Numicon is a multi-sensory approach to arithmetic teaching that uses patterns that are structured to encourage the understanding of number and number relationships. Numicon uses special ‘number shapes’ in a series of practical teaching activities. The maths shapes help children to understand number values and relationships more easily, as it uses visual concrete stimuli.

Numicon

Why Numicon? Pupils & ‘Users’ (i.e. Students, Teachers/Support, Parents/Guardians etc.) have been shown to be readily more motivated by Numicon® than more traditional methods alone, and quickly develop positive attitudes to maths, resulting in raised achievement. From completing the training day participants will:

  • Gain an overview of the Numicon teaching programme and the rationale.
  • Gain an understanding how Numicon is an inclusive approach to support typically developing children and those with special needs.
  • Receive plenty of practical experience with Numicon so you are confident to use it as a part of their maths teaching, and or confident to support others using it.

The following are the criteria for taking part in this project:SAPCheque
1. The student is attending primary school
2. Parent and teaching staff attend training in Numicon prior to receiving the kit.
3. A short initial questionnaire to be completed by the class/resource teacher to assess the student’s current numeracy abilities as per their IEP goals.
4. The kit is provided on a loan basis to the school for the duration of the students’ attendance.
We are very excited about our Numicon Numeracy project and are very grateful to our funder SAP Ireland for their support, and to our Down Syndrome Education Committee for their participation in the rolling out and overseeing of this project

Further information on Numicon can be found on https://global.oup.com/education/?region=international