The Development of Number Concepts and Equal Distribution in Children with Intellectual Disabilities

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The purpose of this study was to discuss the relationship between the development of number concepts and equal distribution. Fifteen junior high school students with intellectual disabilities (< 7 mental age) and preschoolers (n=total 111:3 to 7 years old) participated in an individual experiment in which, on each trial, each child was given 6 to 24 chips and asked to put an equal number of chips on each of the plates in front of the child. They were also given a task related to number concepts (counting task and comparing numbers task). According to these experiments, four developmental stages were postulated. Generally children over 4 years old know the reason of counting, however children with intellectual disabilities (> 4 mental age, vocabulary age) didn't count at all in solving the problems in this study. Examination of the distributive strategies including adjustment will be necessary.