Dyscalculia & Number Shark software

[BDonna]

Hello, my son (aged 10) is having trouble with basic maths, such as remembering times tables etc. We've tried various things at home such as music & songs, mathswrap etc, but it's still a problem and his self esteem is suffering :(

Does anyone have experience of using software like 'Number Shark', or could recommend something else? Number Shark is very expensive.

Thanks!

[jordintay]

I use Numbershark with all three of mine. 2 dd aged 14 and 16 and ds aged 6. It starts right at the very beginning with counting and sequencing moving onto addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It also covers fractions, decimals, percentages, negative numbers, worded problems (like the ones they get on maths papers). It covers a lot of school years (up to at least 14) My 16 year old has dyslexia and dyscalculia so we use it a lot for revision and remembering. The 6 year old just thinks its a game and hasn't associated it with actual learning. Sometimes with maths though it is learning 'cheating' strategies. My dd only learnt the 9 times table at 14 by remembering the answer always adds up to 9 and the first number is one less than the number 9 is being times by. e.g. 6 x 9 = (6-1)=5 so 5+4=9 therefore the answer is 54. 5 x 9 = 4 + 5 so 45. Hope this helps.

[MsDrinkwater]

I teach dyscalculics and dyslexics and have used Numbershark for a number of years- it is excellent. I have recently started a trial for Dynamo Maths but so far I'm not too impressed - it might grow on me. Primary Games have some good games too.

[adrianbeckett]

Hi. I teach dyscalculia too. I'm not convinced that software on it's own would help children with dyscalculia. I would suggest using blank cards. You can read more about how to teach the timestables at my blog //www.adrianbeckett.co.uk/blog