GiGi’s Math Program Leads to Independence

Math 2.0

The GiGi’s Playhouse One-on-One Math tutoring program has been around for over 8 years!  We now have 24 locations offering math tutoring with an average of 275 enrollments per session.  That is approximately 1,000 students each year! 

We recently had an amazing opportunity to review and renew this program, creating streamlined Purposeful Progressions, a comprehensive curriculum guide and an on-line activity base making it easier than ever for our volunteer tutors to create lesson plans for students that are meaningful, relevant and purposeful.

We continue to use the same multi-sensory, hands-on approach we know works best when teaching individuals with Down syndrome.  These hands-on, multi-sensory materials are essential as we strive to give our students a solid foundation of math skills including number sense, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and as we like to call them – “Math in the Real World” skills.  These skills include time, money, measurement, shapes, fractions, and data concepts.

Did you know – when individuals learn math skills, they are increasing their self-esteem and confidence, developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills and have more success with inclusion in general education classrooms!  They can take a more active role in the community and increase peer interaction through purposeful games and activities. 
 

Meet 19-year-old Heather– She now sets her alarm and gets herself to the bus stop independently because she has learned about time.  She can play cards with her friends because she understands numbers.  She can work the register at the local coffee shop because she knows how to add and subtract and applies that to money.  She has learned critical thinking and problem-solving skills so she can independently figure out what to do when things don’t go as planned.

Interested in learning more about supporting our Math 2.0 Program, through volunteering or a donation please visit us at https://gigisplayhouse.org/math-program/