New Math/Common Core for adhd kids
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Anonymous
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DS is 9, and is very gifted, and particularly in math.
School introduced long division and multiplication this year . DS, along with half the class in his gifted school, didn't master the skills very well before moving on to the next unit. I'm not surprised - the rushed, at the computer style of teaching she needs to do (hybrid with zoomers and in-person kids every day) is not amenable to teaching such a big skill, plus the teacher said math skills are still lagging from missing so much school last year. We had to work on it at home, and holy smokes, is it just me or is the new math/common core about 10 times harder for adhd kids than the old math? For multiplication, he has to draw a grid (say, 3x3 if the multipliers are both 3 digits), and then run 9 different multiplications. And then he has to add up those 9 digits - which requires additional steps of adding three digits in three rows, and THEN adding the three answers to that. So steps are: draw grid, do 9 multiplications, add three rows, and one column, and then re-write the answer in the correct space under the original question. The amount of executive processing to get through that process is insane for a kid with terrible exec processing skills - even if his math competencies are extremely high. It was taking him SO LONG to get through these questions - half the time he wasn't even starting because he would get so anxious/distracted thinking about the first step. Even drawing the grid is a challenge because his handwriting is so bad, the grid ends up having the wrong dimensions or running out of room because he's not thinking about the next steps. So i showed him "old math" - no drawing grids, or creating new columns or rows for adding. Just run the multipliers right there in/under the question and then the addends are right there to be added, and then the answer is where it needs to be - no need to rewrite it. He got it instantly and was solving questions in 30 seconds (compared to many minutes, if he even got started, with old math). I know lots of parents struggle with new math, simply because it's different than what we're used to. But it's especially terrible for adhd kids, right? |
Anonymous
| I honestly think every kid is different even with adhd. My ds does really well with common core math. I know someone who had learning disabilities growing up and had to go to a special school. They were taught common core methods for math and became really good at it. |
Anonymous
| All of my kids did well with common core, including my son who has severe ADHD. |
Anonymous
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OP here. This makes me feel better. It could just be that this year is a shitshow teaching wise. DS was home with a minor cold this week, and logged in by zoom (which 6 kids do every day - they opted out of going in person). So i got to hear how class is operating for the first time. The teacher was running things like a machine, but there wasn't much warm and fuzzy, or room for error - because she was sitting at a computer the whole time teaching almost college style - in order to teach both the in person and at home kids. And realisitcally was having to do/say everything twice (one set of insturctions for at home kids, and one set for in person). I was surprised at how "go go go" the pace was, for some pretty major learning milestones. Even language arts and other stuff was so "go go go" that they weren't stopping to talk about what they were learning - just "okay, cut this out, glue it here, now larlo and larla, you guys read lines 3 and 4, now onto the next activity". It was pretty crazy and hard to imagine taking anything away from a lesson.
So maybe there'll be more room for really understanding and grasping the concepts in a future year..... And maybe i'm just projecting my own confusion over new math onto the situation. |
Anonymous
It was terrible for my kid. I think the earlier posters out outliers. |
Anonymous
| It was terrible for my inattentive kid. Very taxing on his weak executive functioning skills, specifically working memory and metacognition. All those steps were opportunities for careless mistakes, and losing sight of the real question. |
Anonymous
| It was hard for my adhd-combined DS. But, like you Op I sat down with DS went over it step-by-step and he eventually got it. I backed it with "old-school" math techniques so that he could check his work and gain a better understanding. I stressed to DS that this level of math is nothing more than a series of rules and methods. I told his teacher that I was teaching older math techniques and that she might see some of those methods on DS's homework, so that she was clear on his level of understanding. I also had DS attend his teacher's office hours to reinforce the new methodology. |
Anonymous
| I agree. Also notice that math assignments that include a word game, for example, doesn’t make it more interesting. It adds steps and also adds tedium for my child (and presumably for other children as well). |
Anonymous
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The new math curriculum, a money grab when common core standards came out, get abstract too quickly and well before half the kids have any numbers fluency or math facts down.
The short cuts, lots of steps, take from here and add over there later are what someone who already knows math well mechanical can learn quickly or do in their heads. Taking a kid with little math foundation and teaching them results in half the class not getting it and big problems down the line. Glad your kid knows mechanical math and will allow you to teach it to him. My child refuses to do math assignments and was turned off to EnVision curriculum during second grade. |
Anonymous
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“New” math methods= Jack of all trades, Master of none.
I recall our kid doing a method of week for addition and then subtraction and by the end of grade 2 you’d give him a worksheet and she’d be paralyzed. Pick a strategy.... Deer in Headlights. |
Anonymous
I think parents can end up pretty wrapped around the axle over the "new math." Your kid will almost certainly eventually learn the "old" way, although the terminology used might be different. If it's like ours, they spend a lot of time introducing multiple methods, which are really about developing an understanding of what's happening and why, and different ways of thinking about the problem. A lot of the methods end up being pretty similar to the kind of mental tricks that people use to do math in real life, especially in their heads. And sometimes a method just never clicks with a kid, but that ends up not mattering much because there are other methods. It can be tough for kids with executive processing issues, because some of the methods are pretty involved, but if he can learn that method well enough to understand the concept, then eventually he will be able to choose the method he wants to use to solve the problems. |
Anonymous
| Common core is a set of guidelines. It isn't a form of instruction. If the old style works better, absolutely teach it. That is what we did. |
Anonymous
Its probably the same way in person. We always supplemented in ES. There isn't a lot of time for the basics. |
Anonymous
This was very true for my son. He didn't need to be taught 10 different strategies. He needed one or two. Because they took so long teaching all of these strategies, he never mastered any of them. |
Anonymous
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The point of most of the new algorithms is to improve numeracy, and often they’re not as fast or “easy” as the old algorithms, when doing fast calculations by hand was really important.
A lot of kids can get really fast with calculating but not notice when an error has them off by 10x. I’m definitely not saying all teachers are good but powering through a sheet of multiplication problems isn’t really the goal. |