Benjamín Júlíusson and Helga Björg Ragnarsdóttir
Benjamín Júlíusson, product manager and Helga Björg Ragnarsdóttir, product specialist at the National institution for the blind, visually impaired and deafblind in Iceland
Math for beginners
Making math fun for young children
Benjamín and Helga will present how they have made it possible to teach math for blind students in the same way as for other students by using the same study material. The blind 1st graders in Iceland are now able to work independently with their math book.
For the last two years the National institution for the blind in Iceland have been adapting a math book that is used by first graders, a book that can be used by blind students that are taking their first steps in school. Before this book was made blind students mostly used braille in math without pictures and it was in the hands of each teacher to find a way to teach the subject. This changed with the new math book. Now all the first graders are learning math using the same book, using the same teaching material and not just using braille but a different approach to solve the math problems.
The main objective of the book was that blind students would be able to do the same exercises at the same time as other students, that students could work independently and that math was fun with more diverse exercises than before.
In this session you will learn how you can use tactile pictures and diverse setups and teaching materials in order to make math more interesting. How you can develop your teaching methods and exercises in order to teach math for blind students the same way as for the other students.