Maths is the most difficult school subject for 13-year-old Annie Lee, but thanks to a revolutionary new approach to teaching maths to people with Down syndrome it's now also her favourite.
Annie and her Year 6 teacher Melanie Stratford at St Benedict's Primary School in Narrabundah have been part of an Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) study since the start of the year and already the results have been "amazing", Mrs Stratford said.
The study, based at schools in Canberra and Victoria, is focused on the way maths is taught to children with Down syndrome in inclusive classrooms.
Mrs Stratford said students with Down syndrome usually operate at a much lower level of maths, but thanks to specific classroom layouts, a team-based approach between the classroom teacher and learning support teachers and assistants, and Annie's trusty talking calculator on her iPad, she can now keep up with her peers.
Mrs Stratford said the larger, colour-coded, talking calculator had been "incredibly liberating" allowing Annie to fix her own mistakes and work more independently.
"Her pride in her own self-achievement … has grown exponentially," she said.
"We tried normal calculators but we found the layout was not conducive … people with Down syndrome find it difficult to master very specific fine motor skills."
The other techniques bridging Annie's maths capabilities will help her next year as she transitions into high school.
"With children with Down syndrome as they get older it gets increasingly difficult because they're working on simpler operations so they're not engaging with their peers," Mrs Stratford said.
Annie's maths skills were assessed at the beginning of the study will be retested when it wraps up to gauge her improvement.
Mrs Stratford said the research showed some students just needed some "extra stepping blocks" to keep up with their peers and the techniques could easily be adapted for other subjects.
"Learning doesn't have to be linear," she said.
"A one-size-fits-all approach to education is fine if you've got 25 kids all the same but the reality is every student has different needs for different subjects."
Mrs Stratford said until the study, there had been very limited academic research and literature on how children with Down syndrome learn compared to their peers particularly with mathematics.
"A side leg that has come out of [the study] is how important an inclusive classroom is for the learning of all students and how children with Down syndrome can be included given the skillset of teachers and support from teachers," she said.
"Just because a child is working at a younger level in a particular area of their academic career doesn't mean they should be held back or segregated … into units catering for people of the same ability."
Mrs Stratford said the inclusive classroom gave all students greater empathy and understanding for people with disabilities for the rest of their lives.
