Applications That Can Be Used For Automaticity/ Math Fact Fluency

In my last blog post I talked about educational applications. I discussed the three key questions that teachers must consider when deciding which educational application is the most appropriate for a student in their room. In this blog post, I am going to discuss the educational applications that a teacher could consider for a student in their room that struggles with automaticity/ math fact fluency. That being said, the purpose of this blog post is to help teachers find an appropriate assistive technology (AT) device for a student in their room who is currently struggling with automaticity/math fact fluency.


Some of you may be asking, what exactly is automaticity in math? Automaticity refers to "the fast, accurate, and effortless processing of content information. Automaticity is also referred to as math fact fluency" (Dell, A.G., Newton, D.A., & Petroff, J.G.).

Applications That Can Be Used For Automaticity/ Math fact Fluency:

1. FASTT Math (Fluency and Automaticity through Systematic Teaching with Technology; Tom Snyder): FASTT Math "assesses students' command of basic facts by measuring response time and then generates customized activities based on the results."  This application helps students "strengthen their memorization of facts and eliminate the need to rely on counting strategies to solve problems" (Dell, A.G., Newton, D.A., & Petroff, J.G.). 

   

   FASTT Math

2. Timez Attack: The Timez Attack application focuses on teaching the child their multiplication facts. Timez Attack is a video game and is so engaging the kids don't even realize they are learning! There is a free Base version of Timez Attack available for download as well as a Full Version that can be purchased. However, the Full Version includes additional games.

   

   Timez Attack

3. The ArithmAttack: The ArithimAttack provides students with practice in "basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts.  Customized problem sets are easily generated by setting the highest and lowest numbers to use so students' practice can be targeted to their particular areas of need" (Dell, A.G., Newton, D.A., & Petroff, J.G.) There is a free version of this application that can be played off-line with Microsoft Internet Explorer or played online.

   

   The ArithmAttack

    
4. Academic Skill Builder: The Academic Skill Builder application has games to help a child "develop automaticity in addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, integers, fractions and ratios". These games are played online and have multi-player and single-user game options. "For all the games, users can set custom number rangers to provide targeted practice on specific areas of need"(Dell, A.G., Newton, D.A., & Petroff, J.G.).  Additionally, a limited number of keys are required to play this game so that students who have difficulty using a mouse or keyboard won't have any issues playing this game!

   

   Academic Skill Builder

Since AT devices that would be useful to help students with math disabilities may not be as obvious as the AT devices that are available to help students with reading or writing disabilities, it was extremely helpful, as a future educator, to get some insight into the AT available for students with math disabilities. I especially enjoyed learning about the AT devices out there to help students with their specific math needs, like automaticity/math fact fluency. For me specifically, my problem was always with retaining information. I would learn something one day and then completely forget it then next. To help with my specific needs, I believe that the FASTT Math application would have benefitted me the most. With the help of FASTT Math, I may have been able to strengthen my memorization skills, which would have made my time in math class A LOT easier! 

Below is a short demo of how FASTT Math Works!!!

Dell, A.G., Newton, D.A., & Petroff, J.G. (2012). Assistive Technology in the Classroom. Boston. PEARSON.