Access to seventh grade mathematics: A case study of two students with mild intellectual disability

Abstract

In the United States, students with mild intellectual disability (MID) are expected to access the general education curriculum and some of these students are required to pass the same high-stakes exams as students without disabilities. Research supports that students with MID can demonstrate success with mathematics after receiving interventions that emphasize the strategic use of visual representations. In this qualitative case study, the researchers describe the teaching methods of a seventh grade, special education teacher who heavily emphasized visuals, such as diagrams and gestures, in her instructional approach. In her classroom, two students with MID demonstrated the ability to solve and discuss algebra problems that required use of the distributive property and to solve word problems of the same structure.