Building Conceptual Understanding of Linear Measurement: Teaching Students With Mathematics Learning Disabilities

Students with mathematics learning disabilities (MLD) often have difficulty in the area of measurement (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2019). Measurement is an ideal platform for students to engage in real-world problem solving to answer interesting questions about their world. Additionally, strong conceptual understanding of measurement provides a foundation for students to develop more advanced mathematical skills, such as rational number understanding in the middle elementary grades (Fuchs et al., 2013). Despite the importance of measurement to students’ long-term success, effective measurement instruction for students with MLD has been drastically underexplored in the mathematics intervention literature, leaving educators with little guidance on how to effectively teach measurement to students who demonstrate academic risk. This paper provides six evidence-based recommendations for educators to effectively teach linear measurement concepts, drawing from the literature on effective mathematics instruction and the development of early measurement skills.