Checklist
Digital Math Tablet Skills Checklists: Building early tech skills
Ready to boost your students’ digital math independence? Explore how the Digital Math Tablet Checklists can guide your instruction!
To successfully access math apps and online math lessons, students who are blind or visually impaired must first develop foundational screen reader skills—starting as early as Pre-K. These tech skills lay the groundwork for navigating digital math content with confidence and independence.
To fully participate in today’s digital math activities, students who are blind or visually impaired must build essential tech skills—starting as early as Pre-K. The comprehensive Digital Math: Tablet Skills Checklists are designed to help educators and families identify and support the foundational screen reader skills young students need to access math apps on tablets like the iPad.
These checklists break down key VoiceOver navigation and interaction skills and digital math skills in a developmental sequence, helping students gain the independence needed to complete math tasks in a digital environment.
The checklists can be used with any type of tablet, but they focus on iPads due to the wider availability of accessible apps for younger students on iOS.
Best practice recommends using a tablet or smart phone before entering kindergarten and to become proficient on a computer before middle school.
Key tech skills for Pre-K to 3rd grade students using screen readers
To successfully complete digital math tasks, students must first build foundational technology skills that support independent navigation, interaction, and concept development leading to a deeper understanding of math content.
- Explore by Dragging: Students should be comfortable dragging a finger around the screen to locate and explore items. This supports spatial awareness and helps students understand screen layout—critical for finding math tools and answer choices.
- Understand and use spatial terms: Words like top, bottom, left, right, middle, corner and next to are frequently used in digital math apps and screen reader directions. Students must learn these terms to follow instructions, navigate screens and build mental maps of digital content.
- Start with basic VoiceOver gestures for an iPad:
- 1-finger drag and 1-finger swipe right/left to systematically move through items
- Then split tap or double-tap to activate the item.
- As students progress, they expand their understanding to include the full range of VoiceOver gestures needed for more advanced math tools and navigation.
- Recognize and navigate layout patterns: Many math apps use predictable screen layouts—rows of choices, columns of lists, menus, or numbers or left-to-right progression. Recognizing these predictable layouts helps students anticipate and find what they need.
- Listen and follow audio prompts: Many accessible math activities use audio instructions and screen readers announce elements such as buttons. Students need to practice listening carefully and responding to spoken math problems or prompts.
- Understanding and using earcons: Earcons are non-speech audio cues (such as clicks or tones) that signal events like focus movement, a new screen or button activation. Learning what these sounds mean helps students navigate efficiently and confidently.
- Develop mental mapping and memory: Especially when graphics are replaced with audio cues, students must build mental maps of screen content and remember item locations—a key skill when solving multi-step math problems.
- Understand button labels and text fields: Identifying and activating correctly labeled buttons like “Next,” “Submit” or math operation choices is essential. Students also need to know how to enter answers into editable fields using a screen reader.
- Braille Display and Bluetooth Keyboard Commands: Once core gestures are mastered, students can begin learning braille display commands or Bluetooth keyboard shortcuts—skills that increase efficiency, reduce fatigue and are essential for completing longer or more complex math tasks.
- Use basic math apps independently: With practice, students should be able to navigate accessible math games that reinforce number sense, counting, operations and problem-solving.
Getting Started
Introducing screen reader skills doesn’t need to wait until later—Preschool, Pre-K, and kindergarten are ideal times to begin building foundational tech skills for digital learning. Here’s how to get started:
- Start with exploration: Let students freely explore the device using their fingers. Use apps with high-contrast visuals, audio feedback, or simple drag-and-drop activities to encourage screen interaction.
- Introduce one gesture at a time: Begin with simple gestures like drag and swipe. Once mastered, add split tap and double-tap to activate items and other basic navigation commands.
- Use consistent language: Reinforce spatial terms (top, bottom, left, right, corner, row) in both physical and digital environments. This builds the language needed to follow screen reader instructions.
- Practice with purpose: Use familiar activities like counting games, shape identification or interactive storybooks to practice tech skills in meaningful ways.
- Choose apps with built-in accessibility: Select math and literacy apps designed with accessibility in mind so students experience early success.
- Model and narrate: Demonstrate how to explore the screen with VoiceOver on and talk through what you’re doing. This helps students connect actions with outcomes.
- Build confidence gradually: Keep lessons short, fun and focused. Celebrate small wins and build tech independence step by step. Repeat gestures to build muscle memory and repeat digital lessons and games to build confidence and independence!
The Digital Math: Tablet Skills Checklists serve as a roadmap for teaching these skills and tracking student progress over time. It supports both tech readiness and math skills.
What are the Digital Math: Tablet Skills Checklists?
The Digital Math: Tablet Skills Checklists are practical tools developed to support educators and families in teaching these foundational skills—specifically those required to access math content on a touchscreen tablet using VoiceOver. It is part of the Digital Math Tech Skills Checklists series, designed by the TEAM Initiative to help Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments (TSVIs) systematically assess and teach the screen reader and tech access skills needed for digital math.
The expanded Digital Math: Tablet Skills Checklists are organized by grade groupings to support developmentally appropriate instruction. Each skill is listed in the first column—covering specific tech gestures, screen reader concepts, or math-related tasks. The second column links to related resources for teaching and practice, while the final columns indicate when each skill is typically Introduced (I), Reinforced (R), or Mastered (M) at specific grade levels. The checklist places a strong emphasis on Pre-K through early elementary, highlighting the essential tech skills that form the foundation for future success in digital math.
These particular checklist focus on the specific gestures, concepts, screen reader interactions, and digital math skills required when using a tablet, such as an iPad. They are organized by grade groupings and include:
- A developmentally appropriate skill sequence from basic touch exploration to advanced VoiceOver commands.
- Clearly defined math-related tech tasks students need to perform, such as understanding announcements (“2×3 table”) and navigating different types of layouts for math-related content.
- A progress monitoring structure where teachers can note whether a student is emerging, developing or independent with each skill.
- Space to customize notes and observations, allowing for individualized instruction.
The Digital Math: Tablet Skill Student Progress Checklist is a companion tool designed to track individual student growth in tech readiness and digital math readiness. Organized by specific skills, this checklist allows educators to document each student’s level of independence using simple progress indicators such as Introduction, Progress and Mastery. Aligned with the skills outlined in the main Tablet Skills Checklist, it provides a clear snapshot of where a student is in their learning journey and helps guide targeted instruction. This student-centered tool is especially valuable for monitoring progress over time and supporting data-driven decisions for instruction, IEP goals, and technology integration.
The Tablet Skills Checklists also include separate command checklists designed for tablets, including:
- VoiceOver Gestures Student Progress
- Braille Display Commands Student Progress
- Bluetooth Keyboard Commands Student Progress
Additional app-related resources are also listed:
- Apps Mentioned in the Digital Math Tablet Skills Checklist
- Math Melodies Skills with Common Core Math Standards
- Animal Watch Vi Skills with Common Core Math Standards
Why It Matters
Early instruction in these skills builds the confidence and independence students need to access increasingly complex digital math tasks—from counting games in kindergarten to algebra tools in upper grades. The checklist helps ensure students don’t fall behind in math simply because they lack the tech access skills to use digital tools.
By using the Digital Math: Tablet Skills Checklists, educators can:
- Identify skill gaps that impact digital math access
- Set clear learning goals for screen reader use in math contexts
- Monitor progress over time to guide instruction
- Empower students to become confident and independent digital learners
Conclusion
The Digital Math Tablet Skills Checklists provide a clear, developmentally appropriate pathway for building the tech skills young students need to access math content with a screen reader. By focusing on foundational gestures, spatial awareness and interactive audio-based navigation, these checklists support students from preschool through elementary school in becoming confident and independent digital math learners. With intentional instruction and the right tools, educators can ensure all students—regardless of vision—are prepared to engage with today’s digital math curriculum.
Resources
- Digital Math: Introducing Skill Level Checklists (This post contains Digital Math Checklists for a variety of devices, including all of the free Digital Math: Tablet Skills Checklists.)
- Webinar: Deep Dive into the Digital Math Checklists (Post contains the recorded Deep Dive into the Digital Math Checklists PowerPoint and recorded webinar.)
- Digital Math Best Practices Guidelines
- Building tech confidence: Introducing the Digital Math Computer Skills Checklist
This post was created as part of the TEAM Initiative to support Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments (TSVIs) by developing digital math and math-related tech skills checklists to help educators systematically teach and track the skills students need to access and succeed in digital math environments. Written by Diane Brauner. If you would like more information about the TEAM Initiative, contact Leslie Thatcher at [email protected].
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