Basic mathematics knowledge is manifested in activities such as going to store to purchase items, balancing a check book, using the telephone, or using public transportation, which helps make individuals with disabilities more independent (Browder & Grasso, 1999). For students with autism, learning basic counting skills are important not only for their academic careers, but for their future independence.

This study compared the basic counting skills of students with autism and typically developing preschool students using a factorial group design. In addition, the study assessed the effectiveness of visual supports during each counting task.

A total of forty-eight participants were included in this study. The sample included twenty four students between the ages of five and ten with a diagnosis of autism and twenty four typically developing preschool students between the ages of four and five. Students were matched according to their estimated mental age. Students with autism were included in the study if they had an estimated mental age of four to five. Children were randomly assigned into two groups; one group was assessed with the use of visual support, while the other group received no visual support.

The findings indicated that there was a significant effect on the order-irrelevance task for group membership. Those in the visual support group performed significantly better than those in the no visual support group. Significant differences were also found on the production task. The participants with autism performed better in the visual support condition, whereas there was no significant effect of visual supports for the typically developing preschool participants. Descriptive analyses of the error patterns of the two diagnostic groups revealed differences in the impact of visual supports on the specific types of errors made by the children with autism and the typically developing preschool children.

Further research is needed to focus on visual supports in other areas of mathematics instruction such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and fractions. It would be interesting to further investigate the counting patterns and the notion of subitizing for the participants with autism.