Number Skills Conceptual Framework for Down Syndrome Children

This project explores what are the learning theory/s that can be used in developing the Number Skill Conceptual Framework for Down Syndrome Children. The framework will be used as a guideline in developing a mathematic computer application with the purpose to help the Down Syndrome children to recognize numbers. The methodology used for this project is the Rapid Application Development (RAD), and the data gathering process draws on Mix Method data gathering that were done through interview, survey, observation and literature review analysis. From that, few things were identified; the findings suggested that Cognitive Learning theory is one of the most relevant theories that can be used in developing the conceptual framework, and children with learning difficulties learn better when they are using computer applications. An application to help children with Down Syndrome to recognize numbers were developed by using the conceptual framework as a guideline. The application is named as “SynMax” and it was developed so that it can be used in 2 languages which are English and Malay Language. There are three modules in the SynMax which are the “Learning”, a module that introduce numbers to children, “Matching”, a module that helps the children to recognize the shape of the numbers and finally “Counting” that teaches the children the amount for each of the numbers. User acceptance test was done to 3 children with Down Syndrome aged between 13. The testing served 2 objectives which are; 1) To test users’ acceptance to the application and 2) To test whether users can connect their prior knowledge with the activities in the application. Observation checklist was prepared prior to the testing. The result showed that the children can accept the application with the assistance of their teacher and they can connect what they have learned in the class with the activities in SynMax. The project is ended with recommendations and conclusion. Recommendation is a section where all the related recommendations and some improvements that can be done for the future of this project are listed and elaborated. Finally, the conclusion section concludes the project as a whole.