Often, autistic children in school can have a difficult time learning certain subjects. Math can often be one of the difficult subjects. Fun activities in math can help make the subject easier. Fun activities can involve board games to learn about numbers.
Autistic children often have difficulty learning problem solving skills. Playing fun math games help autistic children learn math and problem solving skills. Autistic children in school can play fun board games, learn to skip numbers, and learn number patterns. These fun activities in math will get children more involved when learning math.
Activities in Math
Playing games assist an autistic child’s memory. These activities in math help children develop problem solving skills. As well as benefiting their math skills from these activities, autistic children build their social skills when interacting.
Board games are a great way to teach autistic children math. A fun game for them to play and learn with is Chutes and Ladders, Uno, and Bingo. As you play a board game with children, name all of the numbers on the board. As the numbers progress on the board, have the children use the game peices to count the numbers out. This teaches them number recognition.
Number Patterns
Autistic children in school have fun learning about number patterns, as well as color patterns using painted building blocks. To use this activity you will need a set of blocks. Wooden blocks often work well. With a marker, number each color of blocks. For example, all yellow blocks will be numbered with 1's and blue blocks will be numbered with 2's. Repeat the numbering for all the colors of the blocks. For this activity, arrange the blocks in patterns such as: yellow (1)-blue (2)-blue (2)-green (3)-yellow (1).
To teach children number and color patterns, have them recreate the pattern using the colorered and numbered blocks. Since the blocks are numbers, the children will not only pay attention to the colors but the numbers as well. First, have the children try to recreate the pattern using the colors of the blocks. After they have done this, have them recreate the patterns using the numbers on the blocks. As they get better putting patterns together, make the patterns more difficult to include more colors and numbers.
Skipping Numbers
Activities in math can also include learning how to skip numbers. This is done by using the board game Chutes and Ladders. When playing the game, have the children learn how to count by two’s. To do this, you just alter how the game is played. Instead of using every square, use every other square.
As you play the game, play according to the rules the first time though so the students understand how the game is played. The next time you play the game, block out every other square. Explain to the students that the are to only land on the squares that are not blocked out. This allows children to visually learn to count by two's. The same technique can be used to teach the children to count by three's, and so on.
There are many board games that help autistic children learn numerous educational subjects. Playing games can help them improve the social and motor skills as well as their education.