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Hi Gareth, congratulations and well done on your new Soroban website:p
I would recommend all Members having a look at it.
I look forward to the day that the Soroban/ abacus is the foundation of maths education in western countries. Which your site will help make happen. I'll post you some comments and suggestions there, which hopefully will be helpful.
I've only recently had a conversion from the Chinese Abacus to the Soroban, after recognising the importance and value of the change from 2 Heaven Beads and 5 Earth Beads, to 1 H/B and 4 E/B.

Dawn, I would highly recommend trying out a Japanese Soroban, where it gives some physicality to the Kumon 'dots'. Where the 'manipulative' process is a crucial factor. Rather than creating confusion, it would only be a reinforcement. Yet Kumon might then become redundant?
Importantly, regular use of the Soroban, also develops a Mental Abacus, where over time, the physical Soroban is able to be visualised and manipulated mentally.
Gareth, their seems to be a lot happening in Cymru in the area of education. Perhaps you joined in the recent AWARES conference on Autism, based in Cymru?
Geoff,:p