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Teaching Counting

Categories: Math

The most basic of the basic – but basic can be tricky. Teaching the skill of counting is something I have really struggled with. There is so much that goes into fully mastering this skill and so many ways to work on it. Also math is not my fav so I’m never really chomping at the bit to get into this one. But this skill is SO important. Counting leads to so many functional skills and increased independence! Your kids have got to get this mastered asap! {Link to What’s on the Grill Book?}

Here are some ways I like to work on counting:

'Give Me' Counting

I like to call this concept ‘give me’ counting. This is the type of counting we do on a daily basis. Your mom says, “hey give me three napkins.” Your teacher tells you, “grab five pencils.” You tell the starbucks barista “I will be needing three shots in that latte.” Our kids need to associate the quantity of a physical group of items with the verbal number. This is a hard skill to teach and it’s super easy to over prompt and think your student has mastered this concept.

I see teachers do this all the time: A well-meaning teacher says to her student, “Give me three pencils.” The student places one pencil at a time in the teachers hand and once the third pencil lands on her palm, the teacher grasps the group and says, “great – you did it!” Nope. Nope. Nope. No he didn’t do it. He just put pencils in your hand until you said stop. You need to provide a delay. Once that last pencil is in your hand – WAIT. Let your student signal to you when he is done. Errorless learning is key here. Provide hand over hand prompting and model that correct response over and over. Show your student how to signify that he is done counting. Maybe he puts his hands on the table or says, “all done” if he has verbal skills. Beware of over prompting!

Match Number to Quantity

We also need to work on matching a group of items to the written numeral. This is where many of our students tend to excel because there is no spoken language involved! Our kids struggle with comprehend verbal language so taking that out of the equation completely can make the skill a little bit easier to tackle. There are loads of ways to practice this skill – file folder activities, task boxes, worksheets! Just make sure that your little geniuses aren’t just memorizing the task! We need lots of different ways to practice this skill. {pics link to resources}

Receptive Id of Numerals

Since that language piece can be so tricky – it can be helpful to work on this skill in isolation. Just like we love building receptive language vocabularies with so many other concepts – we need to do this with numbers as well. This can be done very simply and easily made more challenging. Show your student a few numbers and say, “show me 3.” Start with a few numbers at a time. Take data. Rock your discrete trial expertise. And slowly but surely – your kiddos will master this concept! Grab this resource here: Basic Skills Unit.

Sasha Long, M.A., BCBA
Latest posts by Sasha Long, M.A., BCBA (see all)

16 Comments

  1. Lynn Waldrop on March 13, 2018 at 6:56 AM

    DO you have a bundle of books that work on this concept?

    Reply
  2. Samantha on March 13, 2018 at 7:08 AM

    Hi Sasha!

    Do you have the resource pictured above available (grill)!

    Thanks so much 🙂

    Reply
  3. Lakshmi on March 13, 2018 at 8:10 PM

    Hi Sasha ,

    Do you have the resources for teaching counting , when we click on the basic skills unit , it goes to reading not math.

    Can you please guide us.

    Thanks so much
    Lakshmi

    Reply
  4. Bethany on March 15, 2018 at 9:12 AM

    Where do I find the grill activity. Thanks

    Reply
  5. Ruthie on March 20, 2018 at 11:05 PM

    I am looking for these as well, where can I find them?

    Reply
  6. Tina on March 21, 2018 at 6:25 AM

    Where can you find this resource? I love it!

    Reply
  7. Carly on March 21, 2018 at 5:10 PM

    Hello! How do I get a link to purchase the grill activity? When I click the button on this page it goes to language activities. Thanks!

    Reply
  8. Jodi on March 23, 2018 at 11:15 AM

    The picture link to the resources seems to have been omitted or disabled. Can you share where we can find the pictures used for the grill activity??

    Reply
  10. Sasha Long on March 26, 2018 at 12:06 PM

    I don’t have one specifically. But here a few that target counting:
    https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Whats-on-the-Grill-an-Adapted-Book-1900137
    https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/School-Themed-Adapted-Book-Series-2060653
    https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Candy-Color-Count-Adapted-Book-for-Children-with-Autism-660281
    https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/What-How-Many-What-Color-Adapted-Book-for-Children-with-Autism-329585

    Hope this helps!

    Reply
  15. Catherine on March 28, 2020 at 11:16 AM

    Hello
    Where can I find the activity on “What’s on the desk?

    Reply

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