Math trouble

[Anonymous]

My 5th grader has mild learning disorders in reading, writing, and math. Basically he's dyslexic with a dose of dyscalculia. We've done O-G for years and now he's moved from remediation to accommodation for reading and writing and he can keep up. But math is a real problem. He forgets steps, panics, and has trouble with calculation. He can use a calculator for accommodation because of difficulty with math facts, but what else can we offer or suggest? He is so worn out by school that more tutoring seems cruel. Any ideas? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Children with ADHD have the same issue with math. Have you checked whether he has it? My son went from regularly forgetting steps and miscalculating his problems to straight As when he was evaluated and treated for ADHD.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, PP. Yes, he's had a full eval (twice) and really good attention, so it's the other issues, I think.

[Anonymous]

The teachers for my kids worked with them to put together a reference binder with examples from all the content areas. I can't remember whether they were allowed to use it on the SOLs (I believe so) but it was a fabulous tool and made them feel a lot less anxious about having to remember all the steps. The key was to identify the type of problem they were dealing with - that is the real weakness my kids have, identify what kind of problem is in front of them. For that, they worked a lot with the school SLP to better understand the 'clues' the problem gives you. They then learned to highlight the clues. That made it easier for them to look up in their reference binder (if needed) what steps were next.

And, of course, practice, practice, practice. It wasn't enough for them to learn to do the math when the lesson was presented, they had to remember it 4 weeks later. This is why, for many years, they always passed the class but failed the math SOLs. Class assessments weren't summative, they were on the content recently presented. SOLS are summative.

[Anonymous]

We're in a similar boat with a third grader. He has dyslexia, which is strongly impacting math, but its not dyscalculia. We've just started with a math tutor but we feel like DS is maxed out because he does have an OG tutor for reading as well. Right now we're going to focus on finding odd bits of time to schedule tutoring sessions, including over the weekend. I looked for a tutor who is younger and energetic to make it seem more fun. They are starting at a very low level so he feels successful and they'll primarily be drilling on math facts. I don't want the tutor to even know what's going on in the classroom at this point because he needs to go back and focus on the basics.

[Anonymous]

You've probably already tried this, but just in case you haven't, graph paper was a life saver for us. All math is done on graph paper. The boxes help keep everything orderly for my DD. Being freed up from having to spend so much time just managing the data, she was able to start seeing where she was making mistakes and missing steps. It was also easier for her to go back and look at what she'd done.

When she was your child's age I would sometimes scribe math for her as well. She'd tell me what to do, I'd write it down. It made mistakes less of an issue, because I was the one writing them down so that pressure was eliminated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 5th grader has mild learning disorders in reading, writing, and math. Basically he's dyslexic with a dose of dyscalculia. We've done O-G for years and now he's moved from remediation to accommodation for reading and writing and he can keep up. But math is a real problem. He forgets steps, panics, and has trouble with calculation. He can use a calculator for accommodation because of difficulty with math facts, but what else can we offer or suggest? He is so worn out by school that more tutoring seems cruel. Any ideas? Thanks!

Do this search for some ideas: http://dyscalculiaheadlines.com/?s=accommodations&submit=Search
or go to dyscalculiaheadlines.com and search for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You've probably already tried this, but just in case you haven't, graph paper was a life saver for us. All math is done on graph paper. The boxes help keep everything orderly for my DD. Being freed up from having to spend so much time just managing the data, she was able to start seeing where she was making mistakes and missing steps. It was also easier for her to go back and look at what she'd done.

When she was your child's age I would sometimes scribe math for her as well. She'd tell me what to do, I'd write it down. It made mistakes less of an issue, because I was the one writing them down so that pressure was eliminated.

Thanks! I need to buy some graph paper. I have been drawing grids for him to set up his problems, but obviously graph paper would be a better solution!

[Anonymous]

How do you get dyscalculia diagnosed? Who does it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you get dyscalculia diagnosed? Who does it?

My son had psycho-educational testing done by one of the practices that do it around here (you can search the forum for names.) Dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and dyslexia aren't in the DSM, so his actual diagnosis is specific learning disability in reading, writing, and math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you get dyscalculia diagnosed? Who does it?

My son had psycho-educational testing done by one of the practices that do it around here (you can search the forum for names.) Dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and dyslexia aren't in the DSM, so his actual diagnosis is specific learning disability in reading, writing, and math.

Our kid was diagnosed with the same issues through a neuropsychological evaluation. Working memory issues also makes everything harder.

[Anonymous]

For the SOLs, you can get an accommodation that says an adult scribes the problem for the kid on the scratch paper. I had a boy I did it for. He knew what to write down and how to solve it, but copying it correctly and lining it up, even with graph paper, overloaded him and he just wouldn't and guessed. It is an OTHER accommodation and you have to spell it out in the IEP. He says what to write where and then you give him the pencil to do the math. He didn't qualify for the calculator because he was really good at the math facts. It was just the writing. This might not apply, but I thought I'd put it out there.