Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you all for the recommendations and hope! For those who tutored their own kids, did you try to keep up with the class work? Or did you start from scratch and reteach? Do you think any of the online practice is good? I've heard that with dyscalculia online work and worksheets are not helpful. Rather, all of the work should be hands on. I have been using some of the IXL units for repetition, but I still sit with him as he works through it to make sure that he is trying. Part of our challenge is convincing our DS that he can learn math and him wanting to do so.

I'm the poster who taught my son math. We're scientists, so for us math is non-negotiable, we consider it to be an extremely beneficial exercise in logic and reasoning, and my son accepted that fact - it's important to note, because we didn't have to deal with refusal to learn. So we just looked at his work, and explained it to him. It always led to finding weak spots in his understanding of basic concepts, so we then had to inch backwards to find where the weakness was and deal with it, before going back to his homework and saying: "now you know why equations need to be balanced, or now you know what this formula actually means and how it was developed, what can you do with this problem?", and accompany him and re-explain until he got it. Most of the time, teachers don't have time for proofs and explanations, so students just apply the formula unthinkingly and then fail when the problems look slightly different. Our job was to explain why the rules were the rules, and why it doesn't work if the rule isn't followed. It takes so much time to do this, yet it's so worth it when your child masters concepts and feels confident and in control. We didn't use them very much, but Khan academy videos are popular. We also used some Art of Problem Solving videos for the proofs (they're free).

Since my son also has ADHD, he needed to be medicated for all this to work, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to pay sufficient attention for any of it to sink in...

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you all for the recommendations and hope! For those who tutored their own kids, did you try to keep up with the class work? Or did you start from scratch and reteach? Do you think any of the online practice is good? I've heard that with dyscalculia online work and worksheets are not helpful. Rather, all of the work should be hands on. I have been using some of the IXL units for repetition, but I still sit with him as he works through it to make sure that he is trying. Part of our challenge is convincing our DS that he can learn math and him wanting to do so.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it’s possible. Your DS has dyscalculia which is basically the math equivalent of dyslexia.

My niece has this which was difficult for her growing up in a family of math nerds. But she did fine and is now getting a PhD in psychology.

My niece did not take Calculus in high school and never went above math for liberal arts majors in college. In her case, the inability to learn math went beyond not mastering core concepts in her early math learning. She had lots and lots of tutoring in math all through school. She has an anxiety disorder and dyscalculia and focusing on her inability to do math had no upside other than making her feel bad about herself.

She was an excellent student otherwise and a very good writer, got into Berkeley and graduated last year. Not everyone needs to learn calculus/trigonometry to be a successful person.

+1000

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it’s possible. Your DS has dyscalculia which is basically the math equivalent of dyslexia.

My niece has this which was difficult for her growing up in a family of math nerds. But she did fine and is now getting a PhD in psychology.

My niece did not take Calculus in high school and never went above math for liberal arts majors in college. In her case, the inability to learn math went beyond not mastering core concepts in her early math learning. She had lots and lots of tutoring in math all through school. She has an anxiety disorder and dyscalculia and focusing on her inability to do math had no upside other than making her feel bad about herself.

She was an excellent student otherwise and a very good writer, got into Berkeley and graduated last year. Not everyone needs to learn calculus/trigonometry to be a successful person.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it’s possible. Your DS has dyscalculia which is basically the math equivalent of dyslexia.

My niece has this which was difficult for her growing up in a family of math nerds. But she did fine and is now getting a PhD in psychology.

Anonymous wrote:
My son has diagnosed ADHD and dyscalculia, and is in advanced math classes in high school thanks to many years of intensive tutoring. And when I mean intensive, I mean daily. At home. With us, the parents, as teachers, for all of elementary school, and some years of middle and high school, as needed. The equivalent in paid tutoring would be prohibitive for us, although we are willing to pay a tutor this spring to make sure he's ready for his AP Calculus exam.

A lot of neurotypical teens start to have difficulties in math starting in middle or high school, OP, and this is because they did not sufficiently master the core concepts in elementary (just going through the motions instead) and because math accelerates significantly at the secondary level. So it's not surprising that students with learning issues would have difficulties too.

But since math concepts build on each other, please get him math lessons (at home with you or taught by someone else) as soon as possible. The more you delay, the worse it's going to get.