Dyscalc math help / remediation over the summer

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:How on earth are you getting your middle and high schoolers to sit in a Chair and concentrate and do an assignment!? My 15 year old would never in a million years do something that I requested her to do like this. And that is even with Ritalin. What is it like to have a compliant child!?

I'm the PP who wrote the long post above about IXL. My kids are neurotypical. And as I said, I was unable to get them to do the IXL independently. When they were assigned it as summer homework by their public middle school, I had to put them on our boring desktop computer and sit on a couch behind them and look up every 5 minutes or so to make sure they were doing the modules. That's before I was investigating remediating their skills. The remediation was a late-pandemic move when I realized that both of my boys lacked important math concepts. And my older one was heading into high school honors math and I didn't want him to stumble freshman year. I personally had a math failure in 7th grade that pushed me back a class year. I also was one of those kids that never internalized the math despite getting good grades. I did terrible on the SAT math and that cost me some pride and probably scholarship money. So I was committed to doing better for my kids.

Oohhhhhh. Neurotypical. Yeah this would not work with my kids. Also, good for you.

iXL PP --you are hanging out on this board because ___________?

Because my sucking at math in middle school and my kids struggling with math cost me a lot of confidence in myself and money spent on tutoring and training. So I will share anything I can with anyone who asks for help. Assessment of math skills is a pretty neutral topic since everyone is trying to help their kid master the same skills. The above commenter is correct about NT kids having difficulties with loosely-structured curriculums, widely varying teaching methods, learning loss, etc. Not to mention difficulties with using learning management systems like Canvas.

I read the Recent Topics list and am open to any subject that I find interesting. I have posted about math tutoring on several other forums on here.

Someone mentioned above that Mathnasium may not be suitable for kids with learning disabilities. They are owner-operated franchises so the vibe can be location-specific. The one near us has a pretty calm, pleasant environment. And they are patient. However, it would be unlikely to have a tutor who is professionally trained like a public school teacher or a resource specialist would be to recognize certain types of learning blocks. They don't pay enough for that from what I have read.

PP here who appreciates your feedback. I think you are welcome here, just maybe put up front the basis for your advice! And realize that what works for your kids may not work for ours the same way. But I do think esp with math you have a useful perspective.

[Anonymous]

New poster here. We enrolled our kid with dyscalcula in ASDEC's multi sensory math program for two weeks and it was pretty helpful in reviewing the things she was weak in.

But we have always had the best luck with private math tutoring. 2-3x a week in the summer. She's a solid B student now finishing up High School geometry, which is a ton better than she did in middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New poster here. We enrolled our kid with dyscalcula in ASDEC's multi sensory math program for two weeks and it was pretty helpful in reviewing the things she was weak in.

But we have always had the best luck with private math tutoring. 2-3x a week in the summer. She's a solid B student now finishing up High School geometry, which is a ton better than she did in middle school.

Thanks, did you focus the tutoring on review, looking ahead or a little bit of everything? That's great to hear about being a solid B student.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:My controversial hot take is that high school is when you should stop worrying about “mild dyscalculia” and just accept that math isn’t your kid’s strongest subject. Do what you need to do to keep their grades decent but doesn’t make a ton of sense to focus all your money and time on their weakest subject.

op - 100% agree; this is primarily to shore things up so he can pass math / or it doesn't sink his gpa.

What is the main issue you think? Is he missing assignments, getting low scores, or something else? For filling in gaps I think Mathnasium is good albeit expensive. For actually keeping up with the curriculum he may need extra repetition which is easier to do with a tutor. There is definitely a wealth of resources out there like Khan and IXL but the hard part is coordination with the curriculum he is learning at the time. Not sure what class he is taking now but you can also consider repeating. (we are repeating algebra in 9th.)

OP here -- not missing assignments, hw and the extras are the saving areas. One of the biggest challenges is his teacher; inconsistent homework, no real text book or guided notes. I think for many kids this would be ok, but has added a huge layer of complexity (not really being able to get into a good work pattern). Sometimes they seem well prepared for the test, and then they take the test and the content/presentation is disimilar to the study materials/ Retaking the same math next year, amazingly would not need to (likely ending up with a C, despite Ds/Fs on many tests), but we decided it's best.

I've often heard that the Mathnasium and similar are good to help a B- student become an A student but are not great for those with real LDs but am open to that as an idea too.

I think the issue is that you don’t know if he has “dyscalculia” or just has suffered disproportionately from the bad new instructional methods due to other factors. I wasn’t completely sure about my kid but sending him to Mathnasium really helped understand how he learns better because I got great feedback. I am not sure who is handing out dyscalculia diagnoses but it seems hard to distinguish to me from either just being relatively worse at math compared to other subjects, or more vulnerable to bad instruction (maybe due to adhd or autism) or a combo of the two.

The dx came directly from a full neuropsych, not just us using a fancy word to say "bad at math" the years he had really good math teachers he was able to do "borderline ok" and the years of flawed math instruction a downright nightmare. Since late elementary has had some really bad luck--teacher on maternity leave (with no real sub for those months), teacher going back for masters (who had been the "above and beyond" type to "the bare minimum") etc
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