Prevention or Intervention
TOUCHMATH Works Either Way!
At TouchMath, we closely align our teaching strategies with the essential developmental theories postulated by educational psychology experts such as Jean Piaget and Jerome Bruner. According to these experts, many mathematical concepts can elude children until they reach either the pre-operational or concrete operational stages.
In most cases, this first stage occurs somewhere between the ages of two and seven, and the second between the ages seven and eleven. But naturally, some students enter these stages earlier and others later. Nevertheless, children have trouble acquiring abstract mathematical understanding before reaching the appropriate stage.
What Makes TouchMath Different?
We designed TouchMath to ensure that all students succeed first at the concrete level of development and then progress through the pictorial level at their own pace. After these basic early learning needs are met — when higher levels of cognitive thinking more easily develop — TouchMath launches students into symbolic math learning, i.e., memorization.
|TouchMath also emphasizes the involvement of all major learning styles. Students see, say, hear and touch the numerals and problems without directing their attention away from the paper. This approach capitalizes on the brain’s ability to assimilate information more readily when accessed through several learning channels. It also naturally focuses the students’ attention and keeps them directed toward the task at hand.|
TouchMath integrates visual cues into our a one-step-at-a-time approach, ensuring that each skill is easily mastered before introducing the next skill. When the multisensory approach is punctuated with visual cues, negative habits such as reversals and guessing are effectively avoided. Students remain optimistic and self-confident as they assimilate new information. High self-esteem encourages the development of more complex math skills later.
Finally, TouchMath provides uncluttered, child-friendly pages. The large print, plentiful workspaces, and manageable number of problems on each page make math seem welcoming and fun, not complex and overwhelming.