Beyond My Little Fingers: Learning Maths Through My Senses

On the 8th of May 2015, Dr. Tida Tubpun from the School of Education conducted a one-day workshop, Beyond My Little Fingers: Learning Maths Through My Senses at the Allied Health Centre of Excellence, Penang. The workshop, organised by the Malaysian Resource Centre for Hearing and Speech-Language (MARCHES), a non-profit organisation aimed to raise funds for aiding under-privileged individuals with hearing and/or speech-language impairments. The Beyond My Little Fingers workshop provided parents and teachers with alternative approaches for teaching and supporting children of special educational needs in learning maths.

Dr. Tubpun, Assistant Professor in Special Needs had several years of working experience as a Special Education Teacher in different educational settings in the US, prior to joining UNMC in 2012. According to Dr. Tubpun, children’s first strategy when learning mathematics was to use their fingers. The workshop guided parents and teachers through a series activities to experience and understand mathematics beyond counting fingers and memorisation of formula. Using a multi-sensory approach, Dr. Tubpun provided hands-on learning experiences to illustrate the alternative learning approach to mathematics.



The participants respond positively to the workshop and enjoyed the learning experience. The organiser from MARCHES, Dr. Phoon Hooi San, called it a fabulous workshop. Dr. Phoon even tried the activities with her four-year-old son right away and had lots of fun, Last night, I heard so much of laughter from him. Now the games are a motivation for him.