How to Teach More and Less Concept to Kids with Autism

Teaching children with more and less concept is essential to compare the number of objects and identify which is more and/or less. For children with autism, more and less concept can be taught using toys, attractive objects, fruits, vegetables, etc. rather than only with words. Research supports the fact that children with autism learn better from the visual structure, which is, adding an object to a task which helps the child to learn and complete the task effectively.

Prerequisites to learn more and less concept:

• Sitting tolerance
• Eye contact
• Attention, concentration
• Number identification
• Number sequencing
• Counting objects
• Matching skills – to match the quantity with number

There are many techniques or methods to teach this concept, let’s see one of them in a step by step manner.

In this technique, we aim to teach the child with MORE concept first, followed by less concept.

STEP 1:

• Let’s take two bowls and fill one bowl with 10 marbles and another bowl with just 2 marbles.
• Now explain to the child that this bowl (bowl with 10 marbles) contains more marbles than the other (bowl with 2 marbles).

(Note: Use some facial expression while saying the word more and stress on that word.)

• Then ask the child which bowl contains more marbles. The child should be able to answer correctly.
• Repeat this activity with different objects and ask the child to identify which bowl has more objects.
• Once the child understands more concept, that is, the meaning of the word more, we can move on to step 2.
  

STEP 2:

• Here, let’s use a strip with numbers written on them as below,

• Teach the child that 1 is more than 0, 2 is more than 1, 3 is more than 2, 6 is more than 3 and so on.
• Repeat and question the child, until the child understands.
  

STEP 3:

• Let’s take two plates with different colors, for example, green and red.
• Fill the green plate with 7 pom-poms and the red plate with 3 pom-poms.
• Ask the child to count the pom-poms on the green plate and place the respective number below the plate.

• Same way,  ask the child to count the pom-poms on the red plate and place the respective number below the plate.

• Now ask the child, by referring to the strip from step 2, which number is more than the other.

             Here, in this instance, 7 is more than 3.

• Repeat the activity until the child masters it.
  

The above technique is repeated for teaching the LESS concept.

STEP 1:

• Let’s take two bowls and fill one bowl with 9 beads and another bowl with just 2 beads.
• Now explain to the child that this bowl (bowl with 2 beads) contains less beads than the other (bowl with 9 beads)

(Note: Use some facial expression while saying the word less and stress on that word.)

• Then ask the child which bowl contains less beads. The child should be able to answer correctly.
• Repeat this activity with different objects and ask the child to identify which bowl has less objects.
• Once the child understands the less concept, that is, the meaning of the word less, step 2 can be taught.
  

STEP 2:

• The same strip is used again to teach less concept.

• Now teach the child that 2 is less than 3, 3 is less than 4, 6 is less than 9, 5 is less than 8 and so on.
• Repeat and question the child, until the child understands.
  

STEP 3:

• Take two plates with different colors, for example, yellow and blue.
• Fill the yellow plate with 8 pom-poms and the blue plate with 2 pom-poms.
• Ask the child to count the pom-poms on the yellow plate and place the respective number below the plate.

• Again ask the child to count the pom-poms on the blue plate and place the respective number below the plate.

• Now ask the child, by referring to the strip from step 2, which number is less than the other.

             Here, in this instance, 2 is less than 8.

• Repeat the activity until the child masters it.

This technique can be practised using different objects depending on the child’s interest.

There are many fun ways to teach this concept and worksheets are available online for download and practice.

Happy Learning.