Tutoring program for people with Down syndrome opens in Scottsdale
Sep 18, 2017, 4:41 AM
(Photo courtesy of GiGi's Playhouse)
PHOENIX — A new program in Scottsdale is offering free math tutoring for children and adults with Down syndrome.
The program offered through GiGi’s Playhouse launched this month with the help of a $10,000 grant from the APS Foundation.
It uses a curriculum called TouchMath that engages learners to use sensory processing to better understand math concepts, ranging from arithmetic to counting money.
The program is set up as 8-week sessions. The first one began on Sept. 10 and runs until Nov. 8. All 25 of the program’s tutors are volunteers.
Cindy Marie Judy, one of the tutors, said the program is open to adults and children as young as 3-years-old.
“It’s a program that anyone can step into and begin, whether they’re young and not even knowing numbers or maybe they’ve done some work while they were in school and they’ve forgotten it,” she said.
All students start out at a low level and are moved up as their math skills improve. They learn about number recognition, addition, subtraction, multiple numbers and handling money.
Judy said many participants already know how to read, but she said reading is not only skill they need.
“We want all of our participants to become life-long learners and be self-sustaining in society today,” she said. “And they need to have math skills for everything – with any jobs that they have, with cooking – anything that they’re doing.”
Though it just launched this moth, demand for the program is high. There’s already a waiting list for the new session, which will begin in January 2018.