| I’m the above poster, the workaround is a calculator😁. But in public school they act like that’s insanity so you will have to deal with that. |
The MAP test also can work in conjunction with IXL. You can set up a plan based on the various scores of the math subsets. |
Ahhh...I see. If the calculator accommodation is allowed at his private school, will it be allowed for standardized testing in the future? I do think that it makes a big difference for this particular kid. |
Possibly, but you'll need the documentation to back it up. |
| The Md accomodations manual has it as a possible accomodation on non calculator sections for a severe need. Your IEP team will have to agree on that. My child was 7th percentile in math calculation and they wouldn’t give it to her. |
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My kid has the same profile, and so do I. I still don’t know my math facts, can’t remember my own phone number, and sometimes can’t tell left from right.
ASDEC has math for dyslexia summer workshops for kids, and training programs for teachers. We actually paid for my kid’s wonderful math tutor to take their multisensory math class so he could better teach our son. It helped! Before the class he said he truly thought that if you understood something you couldn’t forget it. Nope. People like us truly can get a concept and then poof, it’s gone. Check with ASDEC. I will also recommend from our hard experience slowing down the math progression if that is possible. There is no need to take Geometry in 9th grade. Re-do basic math and Algebra 1 if needed until he really gets it. It takes lots of time, and that’s okay. |
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This is all pointing to a real possibility of dyscalculia, in my opinion. Our child was (finally) diagnosed last summer after 9th grade. After years of teachers and parents missing signs and thinking she just wasn’t trying hard enough, experienced, COVID learning loss, etc. Our kid had many of the classic symptoms (very low numeracy skills, inability to memorize math facts, counting on fingers, confusing left and right, inability to understand money, difficulty telling and keeping track of time). Please consider more testing. Looking back, someone should have known in our case, but unfortunately educators are not properly trained to identify or provide interventions for dyscalculia. Our child almost failed their math state assessment in elementary school but did so well on the verbal that it didn’t really grab anyone’s attention—but in retrospect it should have.
Trust your parental instinct and be prepared to educate teachers and advocate for your child. Doing math facts over and over is not necessarily the answer but many teachers will push this “try harder and memorize it” approach. We found a psychologist in Virginia with some familiarity with dyscalculia so she focused the assessments. It was Leslie Hawkins with Mindwell Psychology. |
I’m sorry but would you tell a kid with suspected dyslexia to just keep reading the same books over and over again because they clearly should know how to read the words? |
| My child with dyscalculia is going into the 8th grade and her IEP allows use of a calculator. Math facts are never going to stick. She’s still not sure of L and R. Accommodations are the answer. |
Me again - I realize I sounded very negative. As a follow up, I have a masters degree that included taking math-heavy subjects, and use data in my work. I may not be able to remember my own phone number all the time, but I can tell you what a pile of data MEANS. I see the forest for the trees. This is why I suggest slowing things down so your kid masters the material - it may take them a little longer to get where they want to go, but the options of where they CAN go are endless. |
As a parent who has used and paid for ixl.com, I agree with IXL.com as a resource. The pricing for single child math-only subscriptions is $10/mo. Be aware that your child will have to do some hours of math, with diligence, to fill out the results (get enough performance data). That can be in shorter sessions. You may want to sit in the same room as your child while they work. If they get stuck on a unit, you can redirect them to another appropriate choice. After accumulating enough results, it's possible to see areas of strengths and weaknesses in different areas of math. The program has grade level exercises for K-12, so you will see similar headers by grade (can assess if your child is doing 3rd or 5th grade division). You do have to hop around in the portal to do this. I found that my IXL review of my child's ability matched well with the complimentary Mathnasium assessment. So it was worth the limited money I spent (and had no upsell associated with it). I still enrolled my kid in Mathasium because I felt he needed personal attention, homework help, and a dedicated outside of home place to study math. Mathnasium is costly and not suitable for all student issues. If you get detail on in-school testing, with enough IXL practice, you should detect similar remediation opportunities. I originally learned of this program through my school district. They assigned it to kids as summer learning. However, they discontinued offering it. Its weakness is that it can't help kids who are unable to self-educate and need a teacher to demonstrate and correct procedural mistakes live. |