dyscalculia

[ColinFirthsGirth]

Hi,
My son has just been found to have dyscalculia. He is 11 in Sept and will be going into year 6. I have been telling the school that he has a problem with maths for over 3 years but he apparently can do maths better at school than when he is at home doing his homework.

He can often not do his maths homework and I constantly feel like I have had to teach it to him from scratch each and every week. The teacher tell me that he has been taught it in school which I don't dispute but he certainly doesn't know how to do it when he gets home. I suspect this is partly to do with memory issues. He sometimes cries with anxiety about his maths homework at home but the teacher told the assessor that he isn't anxious at school and that he likes maths. He hides his anxiety and doesn't like maths at all.

I have suspected dyscalculia for along time and it is just a shame that the teachers never picked up anything themselves and it has taken until almost 11 to diagnose this problem. However, I want to look to the future now so I would be very grateful if any parents or teachers with any kind of experience of dyscalculia could give any advice.

My main concern is how to help him at home. I have a very poor working memory so sometimes find his homework difficult myself. Whenever I have told the teacher that he usually can't do the maths homework I have just been told that he should just do his best. I often have to help him so much that I am practically telling him the answer just to get the homework done and in on time.

I have told the teachers if I genuinely let him do the work without this amount of help then the homework would never get done. They have never really given me an adequate answer or solution to this. I know that if he doesn't do the homework then the teachers will just think we are not bothering.

I am getting fed up as someone with a specific learning difficulty - and also finding maths very difficult - myself of feeling like I am teaching him from scratch and not getting any real support off his teachers.

Last years teacher even told me that he was below people in his maths group that not as intelligent as him and that he wasn't working hard enough. I know dyscalculia is very hard to diagnose but I could tell there was key traits of dyscalculia and lots of people have good intelligence levels and have special needs so I was abit annoyed with attitude.

Sorry for the long post

I would start by getting advice and having him assessed. These companies may be able to give you advice or recommend people in your area.

www.toe-by-toe.co.uk/

www.irlen.org.uk/northeastengland.html

Hello,
I think this book is quite good for helping your son with Maths:

The Dyscalculia Toolkit: Supporting Learning Difficulties in Maths

It must be so frustrating for you. Good luck.

Thanks for thr replies.
That book looks good withgreatpower!

Chinwag - he has been assessed by 2 special needs advisory teachers - one assessed him for dyslexia and other literacy problems. He hasn't got dyslexai but may have Irlens as I have it. The other assessed him for dyscalculia and he has been found to have it. The school seem to know alot more about dyslexia than dyscalculia. They hadn't even thought about having him assessed for maths isses until I told them that I thought he had a problem with maths and a working memory problem.

Hi Colin

You have said that your son has been found to have dyscalculia. How was this diagnosed? Was it by an educational psychologist carrying out a full assessment? If so then hopefully you will have also been told which of his underlying areas are strong, perhaps visual memory, and this will tell you how he finds it easiest to remember things.

Also, have his school carried out a diagnostic assessment of his maths skills as this will allow them to identify any gaps in his foundation knowledge that they could then fill in.

If he finds it difficult to remember things try and present them to him in a concrete form using Lego to build, or chocolate rolls to divide and cut up as this physical doing, and eating, will him to remember!

I suggest that for a week or two you ask him to do his homework alone but emphasise to him just to do his best and not worry if he can?t complete it in the given time. Write a note on his work to his teacher explaining that it has been done independently so that they can see what he is capable of doing at home. This is the only way that they can tell how hard he finds it to do the work when it hasn?t been covered before in class.

Can the school offer any specialist maths teaching that will help to strengthen his basic maths skills, raise his confidence and self-esteem, reduce his stress levels and allow him to start to enjoy his learning?

Good luck!

Hi. My daughter has dyscalculia. She was assessed after we moved her to a better school. She's now in secondary school and still has problems. I read books, bought equipment, did time-tables every day on the way to school and she went up 6 sub levels in one year. The school were fab and the teachers just wonderful. Sadly, she isn't anywhere near as supported now in secondary school and it's hard to have that link with the school that i had in primary. I just hope i managed to give her a decent foundation but only time will tell.

Hi Colin

The key to helping a dyscalculic is to help them develop 'number sense' - understanding what a number is and how numbers are related to each other. Dyscalculics do this by working with concrete materials (real objects) and talking about what they are doing. The reason for this is to develop visual images that give meaning to the numbers. Pupils should also draw diagrams to help them make sense of what they are thinking about. This is called a multi-sensory approach. Unfortunately many teachers are not trained to teach dyscalculics and too many people dismiss concrete materials as a crutch. They are not if they are properly used which means that the pupil does the moving of objects and the talking.

The problem for the dyscalculic starts right at the beginning with counting - not merely reciting the numbers in order but understanding that the last number in a count is both the ordinal aspect of the number (it's position in the sequence) and the cardinal value (the size of the set of objects). For example, if you count 5 objects, you understand that 5 includes 1,2,3 and 4. The dyscalculic doesn't get this. They have what is called a unitary approach to number so they each number as a 'clump' of ones. This causes great difficulty with calculation as they view each problem as an instruction to count. They cannot make links. For instance if they know that 3 + 4 = 7, they cannot see that there is a pattern that will help them work out 23 + 4.

You might find the following two books and a website useful:
'Teaching Number Sense' by Julia Anghileri
This is a reasonably short yet very comprehensive account of how children learn number sense, where difficulties arise and what are the most effective teaching methods. (The number line is extremely important.)

'The Dyscalculia Assessment' by Jane Emerson and Patricia Babtie
Here I have to declare an interest as one of the authors. However I include it because it was written as a step-by-step guide for people like you and your son's teachers. It is not an assessment in terms of finding out where the pupil is in relation to his peers; the aim is to find out what the pupil can and cannot do and how he thinks about numbers. You don't have to do the whole assessment. You are trying to find the point at which understanding has broken down and you stop there as this is the place you will start teaching. There is a chapter on interpreting the errors you find with some suggestions for resolving the problem. There are games specifically devised to develop various basic skills.

Games are an essential element in any remedial programme. They provide an opportunity for repetition which would be very tedious if done in a conventional way. They encourage the pupil to talk about numbers using his own words. Perhaps most importantly they are fun and so help to combat maths anxiety. In my experience (and I teach adults as well as children) maths anxiety is one of the major problems. Presented in the correct way maths can be great fun for pupils and there is enormous satisfaction gained by mastering something they did not think they could do.

www.number-sense.co.uk
This is a free website with a few interactive games for helping with the basic skills of counting and number location, as well as telling the time. It is part of a research project at the Institute of Education and Birkbeck.

The Number line Game would be particularly good for a child of 11. He may find it difficult at first so look at it with him and ask him to tell you where he thinks the number might be. (eg. Find 345. Can he tell you that it is bigger than 300? Etc.)

Apologies for a rather long post. However I hope you might find it useful.
Good luck, and remember make it FUN!

Quote by ColinFirthsGirth: "He can often not do his maths homework and I constantly feel like I have had to teach it to him from scratch each and every week. The teacher tell me that he has been taught it in school which I don't dispute but he certainly doesn't know how to do it when he gets home. I suspect this is partly to do with memory issues. He sometimes cries with anxiety about his maths homework at home but the teacher told the assessor that he isn't anxious at school and that he likes maths. He hides his anxiety and doesn't like maths at all."

CFG as I have said in the SEN section, we are in EXACTLY this situation. In fact the school told me in no uncertain terms that instead of my child having a maths problem it is in fact MY OWN ANXIETY which is being PLACED ON MY CHILD and making her anxious at home! Completely offensive! And disputed by my dd's specialist tutor (who has assessed her and agrees dd has fundamental numeracy problems) but school will not acknowledge this or retract their offensive and personal, deorgatory comment and instead have 'challenged me' to bring it up with the HT (who is useless and will, of course, back the SENCO all the way) Mmmmm, nice!

So, I am glad that your school have assessed and diagnosed. I have sent you a message describing some of the games we use at home and with our specialist dyslexia tutor. It is good to share tips, hope you can implement some of them in addition to the other great advice on this thread.

All the best, HW
x

I have a child who i suspect may have dyscalculia or some elements of it.At the age of 6 we started tuition with him.He is now at the end of year 3 [still 7 years old] and has gone from a 2c to a 3c this year.The tutor started off with absolute basics not assuming any prior maths knowledge.She uses sweeties,stickers,shiny glass nuggets and other brightly coloured objects.he now isn't in the extra maths programme and doesn't need to see the senco any more.One thing his tutor has noticed is that he's very good at certain aspects of maths-the logical problems like lines of symmetry and shapes but when it comes to the numbers his mind often goes blank.
I havn't had him tested because i didn't want him to be labeled at a young age.I also figure that he has to learn certain strategies for coping with this.I now believe the earlier the intervention the better.

Hi - you need to speak to Celia Stone. She's a retired Special Needs teacher and dyslexia/dyscalculia guru. She created a multi-sensory teaching programme 15/16 years ago called Beat Dyslexia that's still used in schools and since retiring she's created the dyscalculia equivalent called Beat Dyscalculia (also known as Addacus). Celia is a lovely woman and I'm sure would be happy to help and point you in the right direction.

You've already been given her contact details by Chinwag via the link to Irlen North East as she's also a director of The Irlen Institute UK and was one of the first 'diagnosticians' in the country - she diagnosed my husband 25 years ago (he was one of the first people in the country to have the coloured glasses) and my daughter 3 years ago.

Unfortunately most of the help and information out there is very dyslexia- biased but dyscalculia is becoming more and more of an issue for schools and parents. Officially the British Dyslexia Association covers dyscalculia as well so it might be worth talking to them. And I'm a member of their Parent Champions group on Facebook, which is also mainly about dyslexia but it's a good supportive forum and I'm sure there are people on there with similar issues.

Good look and let me know if I can help further.

Lisa

www.beatdyscalculia.co.uk (new website in development)
www.addacus.co.uk (old website)
www.bdadyslexia.org.uk
www.parentchampions.org.uk
www.blessedarethecheesebrains.com (my dyslexia blog)