The Effect of Using Educational Games and Illustrative Figures on the Acquisition of Some Mathematical Concepts by Special Education Pupils

( ) 2007- 2008 (23) (11) (12) . 2007 - 2008 (21) ( 20) (0.78) ( ) : (0.05) (0.05) (0.05) .This research aims at defining the effect of using educational games and illustrative figures on the acquisition of some mathematical concepts by special education pupils To achieve this aim, the researchers put three null hypotheses to be experimented The study was limited to the third graders of Ma'arb and Imam Malik primary schools for the academic year (2007 - 2008).The researchers used equivalent groups experimental design where the first experimental group used educational games and the second one used illustrative figures, the sample was (23) pupils falling into (11) in the first group and (12) in the second . Equalization of both groups was done in their math grades for the second year in the academic year (2007 2008) ; General average of the grades of second stage, time age of students measured in months, academic level of parents and the grades of the pre-and post test of mathematical concepts As for teaching both groups , the researcher, in cooperation with teachers of the subject in both schools, taught by himself the concepts of the experiment after achieving equivalence between them The researcher made a tool to measure mathematical concepts formed out of (12) questions and to verify its usability , the research presented the tool to a panel of experts to know its validity and applied them to an external pilot sample to find the difficulty level and its discriminating force and extracted stability conjunction facor using Korder - Richardson 20 formula reaching (0.78) which means the tool is good .After treating the data statistically , the results showed :1. statistically significant differences at the level of (0.05) between the means of concept acquisition test (pre and post tests) for the first experimental group using educational games with a bias toward post test .2. statistically significant differences at the level of (0.05) between the means of pre-and post test of concept acquisition test for pupils of second experimental group using illustrative figures of post test .3. statistically significant differences at the level of (0.05) between the averages of the first experimental group using educational games and the second experimental group using illustrative games in post - test in favour of illustrative figures .Given the above mentioned results, the researcher made a number of recommendations such as training mathematics teachers at primary stage how to use educational games and illustrative figures by participating in courses during service and within the field of special educational programs .One of the suggestions was to initiate a similar study on other special education classes and a complementary study to contain the second part of mathematics curriculum of third graders of slow learners .