Dyscalculia

[ColinFirthsGirth]

Hi,
I was just wondering if anyone has any experience of dyscalculia and ways in which I can helpmy child - who is nearly 11 and just finishing year 5.

Also what kind of support should his school be offering him? They don't seem to know much about it and it has taken 3 years of telling his maths teachers that he has a problem with maths to be diagnosed with dyscalculia.

CFG I have a dyslexic dd just finishing Y4. She struggles with the basic concepts of numeracy and has a lot of anxiety about it. Her dyslexia tutor agrees with me but sadly her school describe the problem as 'gaps' and say she is fine and doesn't need any SEN help. I have come to the conclusion that there are broad issues with maths teaching/assessment in primary school (I digress) and am unsurprised to read it has taken your son's school 3 yrs to get the picture. However it is good that the problem is recognized.

Alongside my dd's tutor, we are working on building confidence right back up with the basics. We are talking simple number bonds, using concrete tools, like you would, say, in Y1. We have been immersing ourselves in card games, board games, computer games, Apps on iPhone (check out 'PopMath', 'Percy Parker's Times Tables' and 'Eggs on Legs'). The card games are particularly successful as they seem to take all the stress away. If you are very lucky the school will take up the mantle and provide help, but the form of help depends on what spread of availability in his class, so it is difficult to know whether help would be offered inside or outwith his class, the school would have to make that call. In my case our specialist tutor is a totally invaluable ally (allbeit expensive) and I could not provide all this help without her on board to guide us.

Good luck,
HW
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Thanks HW. Unfortunately the research on dyscalculia is 20 years behind dyslexia so school don't seem to know much about it.

Can I ask what games and card games you use?

Yes I agree that dyscalculia is not a well known LD. My beef is that schools need to be better at pinpointing the level of a pupil's ability to work with numbers ie their numeracy, whether the problem is an LD or poor attendance at school, whatever. I don't think the SATS tests really check this and nobody seems to mind.

Anyway, I will message you and let you know some of the things we have been doing.

HW
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Private Message sent

handy DS is dyscalculic as well as dyslexic but the school seem to be lacking in interventions for dyscalculia - would you mind posting what you have been doing here?