Un progetto per l’apprendimento della matematica nella scuola primaria per bambini con sindrome di Down: Fenix Didò

In Italy, where the study comes from, children with disability attend mainstream schools and classes. Therefore children with ID are rarely involved in suitable learning programs. This article describes an experience of cognitive enhancement for children with Down syndrome attending primary school based on Phoenix project, originally aimed to stimulate cognitively children in socio cultural deprivation context. Five primary public schools in Cuneo province, ten children with Down syndrome attending primary mainstream school and their families had been involved in this study. The aims of the study were to check the effectiveness of Phoenix project with children with learning problems connected to ID, to understand if and which adjustments to the project should be suitable and to involve schools and families in the aim of starting a formative support service for them. Phoenix DIDO’ program’s findings show that Phoenix experimental project is also suitable to work with children with ID. Moreover, it comes out that customization is appropriate when time as well as number of games for each skill are concerned. Bringing the program at school has been showing teachers a possibility for a different approach to their work. According to teachers’ request, research team organized a course for teachers and parents of children with ID about learning strategies and learning math in the primary school. When it comes to future research possibilities setting a statistical sample testing the Phoenix games project with others types of disabilities or other age.