Tactile and acoustic teaching material in inclusive mathematics classrooms

In this article, touch and hearing are analysed regarding their use in inclusive mathematics education of children who are blind, focussing on the development of the number concept in primary school. Relevant publications from different psychological and educational disciplines were compiled resulting in a research synthesis. This review shows that acoustic teaching material is a viable option to supplement tactile material for representing number. In practice, decisions have to be made about the most valuable resources regarding the individual needs of the child with visual impairment, the situation in the inclusive classroom and the concrete learning objectives for all children. To facilitate decisions in choosing or designing teaching material, an evaluation procedure is proposed and explained with examples.