Special Numbers

Special Numbers contains a set of activities to help develop early number skills, including counting, matching, ordering, comparing and selecting. We have designed the app in collaboration with parents, children, teachers and educational psychologists, and with reference to research into how children acquire mathematics skills.

All the activities are intended to be accessible and hold the attention of children with learning difficulties including Down syndrome, autism, poor fine motor skills and hearing impairment, as well as being appealing to typically developing children. Special Numbers is suitable for use at home, at school, in nursery or kindergarten, and in therapy sessions.

There is no set order to the activities in this app, and each activity is highly configurable, so you can address a particular skill at the child’s level whenever you want, and continue to use the app as their abilities develop. Settings you can change include:

• Range of numbers (between 0 and 20, depending on activity)
• Objects to use (digits, words, balls, animals, clocks and dominoes)
• Fonts (including our own font with easy-to-read digits and letters)
• When and where to use the built in sounds
• Speed of animations (to adjust the pace of the activities)

Special Numbers includes some pictures from the See and Learn Language and Reading resources published by Down Syndrome Education International. These will be familiar to children who have used the paper-based See and Learn activities, or our Special Words app (which also uses these pictures).

This is a universal app for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. This version supports English (both American and British), French, Spanish and Catalan: we plan to add more languages in future versions. By using profiles, you can replace sounds and text with your own recordings and words in any language, have different settings for each child, and transfer customizations between devices. A detailed User Guide is available on our website at www.specialiapps.com.

We cannot reply to app reviews, but we answer every email, and are always happy to respond to questions and suggestions at support@specialiapps.com.