Maths with S & L disorder

[bubble2bubble]

Dd had huge issues with reading but is now reading brilliantly thanks to The Reading Recovery Programme.

It could be that the school has focused so much on getting getting her to read that her maths has been neglected - or is it something else S & L related ?

She has verbal dyspraxia - speech is now not bad, sequencing fine, receptive language fine, but it seems to be the concepts of what she is being asked to do are just beyond her? e.g counting in 10's/counting money/subtracting..

She's also doing Headsprout reading online - is there something like this for maths?

I have to try & get her confidence in maths up before she moves into mainstream school in September or it's going to get even worse IYSWIM

Severe difficulties with maths is called Dyscalculia....

You can get good advice on it on the main primary ed board.....

Can obv exist alongside anything else.

Does your DD have Dyslexia? Or just problems learning to read because of speech problems?

(Not that dyslexia and dyscalculia are actually related....)

Numicon is normally the first thing recommended......

Or if you want an online program (not SN) people recommend MathsWhizz

Dyscalculia did occur to me
She may well be dyslexic though I think school are probably discounting it as she reads so well and now only reverts to writing backwards etc when she's very stressed....and then there's the dyslexia/dyspraxia argument which I'm not sure I've entirely cleared up yet

Thanks for the recommendations - will have a look

I'm not sure that giving something a label makes any difference, but no matter.

Good to hear the reading coming along.

I do a lot of work with kids with maths difficulties, most of which are not caused by maths per se, but difficulty understanding the confusing, variable and abstract terms used.

Numicon is brilliant and has made such a difference.

IXL is nowhere near the level of sophisiticated teacihng and error correction of Headsprout but it is fun and easy to use and gives the opportunity for lots of practice which is essential.Start at the beginning and work through it.

Funnix operate along the same theoretical principles as Headsprout (on a miniscule budget) and are offering a free trial until June 26th, so worth a whirl.

Agree labelling does not make the difference but DD is obviously not learning maths the way she is being taught so I have to find another way.

Those websites look great - thanks for that

Numicon is brilliant. There is also a program online called dynamo maths that is specifically for children with dyslexia and/or dyslcalculia.

Severe problems with maths may not be dyscalculia, which is characterised by the inability to 'see' how many items in a group, ie to know that four smarties is 'four'. The difficuties may arise due to the s&l difficulties or from other issues relating to things like working memory or laterality.

As moondog said, it's not the label, but what is done about it that matters. I will look into the resources you all suggest as I'm continuously looking for more good things to help the children I work with.

Which means that it might be worth considering that the teaching is what is letting her down not some 'condition' within her.

My kids love IXL. They do two sections every night and it builds up quick with lots of extra reinforcement (eg certificates and pictures you uncover on a grid as you go through it).

If you do a little on a regular basis, it is amazing how it builds up. One of my kids has just got a certficate for completing 12 000 questions since hristmas.
That's a lot of extra opporunities to master concepts causing problems.

Hilary Gardner at the University of Sheffield is doing research into the difficulties students with SLI etc have with mathematical language. It might be worth getting in contact to find out more about the precise terms that are problematic etc?

It is the teaching that has let her down moondog but I blame myself for not spotting it sooner, and because they had managed to teach her to read - which at one point seemed impossible - I am surprised that the maths has been kind of brushed under the carpet.

Had the end of term meeting with Dd's teacher this afternoon and now am just dwelling on how she said DD gets look of panic on her face as soon as maths is mentioned

That's a problem.
So much to tackle and as parents, you can never know what goes on in the class.

Ask for her workbooks and go throguh them (if you are confident)

I still say go after numicon. Get yourself on a course.
It has changed my life.Such beautifully simple concrete representation of abstract concepts.

Another vote for numicon!

bubble2bubble

Something to try, it may help, may not. It is FREE progrom you can download
from sourceforge "home and education" section (sourceforge is the home of the program developed who produce programs t o share free of little expense) The program to try is GraphCalc a graphic calculator, my son finds it useful.

Another vote for Numicon.

My ds had difficulties adding and last October we were working on adding 0 to a number. In November, we were adding 1. Now he is adding numbers mentally - 1 digit to any number up to 100.

On Friday, I was told that he could not add 10 to a given number. Thought about the problem. On Saturday, I took out the Numicon set and asked him to make 3, then 13, then 23. Did 4 sets of numbers, 3 times that day. That night when I asked him to add 10 to any given number, he could give me the correct answer.

Also, check that he understands the concepts. I found out that my ds did not understand the 'equal', 'plus', 'subtract' etc. Thanks to Moondog who said that if the child has not learnt in x number of sessions, to break it down into simpler chunks, did I discover what my ds did not know.

I really must thank the people on this board for teaching me how to teach my ds.

I am now much better prepared for round two school meeting on Thursday and Numicon starter pack ordered - thanks all for the good information it makes a lot of sense

That's so great to hear of his progress Trying!
Good for you!