My 12 year old son can't count

[Dallaa]

My son has dyslexia and DLD so perhaps that explains it. He finds maths very difficult and is working well below year 7. However, and dont ask how this one has been missed by us , having now done loads of maths lessons with him I can see he cant count properly. He counts the number he is on. For example, 6 plus 4 he will count 6,7,8,9. Its driving me crazy. I've tried every way to explain not to do it and why. I even labelled the stepping stones in the garden and got him to count from there. Has anyone else had experience of this?

Use numicon! You can get a good set from Amazon ! And search cardinal numbers.

I will post a series of apps my son tutor uses as he is AMAZING

Thank you. We use numicon already and hes fine with that and a number line. But as soon as you get him to count with his fingers he does it wrong . I just wanted to know why.

I looked for cardinal numbers but couldn't see anything specific. Is it a website ?

Can he say the number that is one more than a given number?

Yes, which is an improvement on a year ago. But when he counts he includes the number he is on. Its so weird. So, 6+1 he can do. But for example, 6+3 he needs to count on fingers and he always starts on 6 and goes 7, 8 instead of 7,8,9. I guess the answer is to go back to the beginning and get him to count right through all the numbers. Is it part of dyslexia ? He also cant tell the time or remember his birthday. hes 12!

Dyscalculia is the number processing learning difficulty.

But if he had dyscalculia surely he wouldn't be able to do simple sums either. He cannot understand what fractions are for anything.

It’s often associated with dyslexia and they are spectrum conditions so it’s not that you can’t do any number work, it just takes longer to process and learning the methods can take longer

Thank you. I have bought some primary school books and I am going through it slowly. I feel so sad for him as I cannot see how he will get his GCSE maths in 4 years time. I am also starting to wonder if he has MLD rather than SpLd. I'm not sure how they are defined, but it's clear to me that he has problems across the whole curriculum. He has an EHCP already so not much more I can do in terms of support hes getting its just a bit of a shock to see how much he struggles at age 12. Very worried with teen years round the corner.

A technique I use with my dc is to hold up the amount of fingers of the smaller number, then make a fist with the other hand. The hand with the fist is a microphone. So you say the bigger number into the microphone then add the smaller number on.

I like that. Thank you.

I"ve bought an abacus as well.

I just feel crap that I didnt realise he was doing this. Hes in a special school since yr 7 (sep). Its only because we are home schooling that I know. We only got all his diagnosis in yr5 and yr 6 so I also feel bad we didn't realise until he was 10 that he had DLD. Not that we even knew there was such a thing. I just worry about his future so much. His school does GCSEs, but I am now wondering if his diagnosis should be MLD rather than dyslexia and dyscalculia as having read the criteria he does have difficulties across the curriculum as well as DLD.

How specific is the OP ? Maybe you need to ask for him to be reassessed ?

I used to tell children to put the big number in their head and the little one on their fingers, then touch their head to say the first number before counting on using their fingers.

Sorry that should say how specific is the EHCP OP?

Mumsnet we need an edit button!

Ok OP, I'll be back in a moment. Sorry for not getting back to you, I have been busy homeschooling and working from home!

Cardinal numbers are basically just looking at a number and knowing it's number...and it's good for developing a sense of number I.e. 5+1=6..... instead it counting 1,2,3,4,5,6 by fingers. I can hold 5 in my head and onwards to 1.

Numicon is good for developing a sense of cardinals.... I.e. the 5 shape looks like a 5... he would then be able to look at the shape and say whether it's a 6 7 or not. I will buy a numicon set from Amazon.

When working on maths, it's good to start from within 10, then build up to 20... e.g. 2+4, 6+3 etc. You really do not want him to count on his fingers or do the whole counting by route... you want him to hold a number in his head and then count onwards. Numicon will help with this. When adding to numbers together... e.g.2+3..: you don't count the numicon shapes for example I.e. 1,2,3,4,5,6. You will say, ok I've got 2 in my head and I will count onwards "3,4,5".

I don't know if this is making sense. I'm sure it isn't, I have a huge range of apps I can recommend but I'll have to do this next week as I'm swamped! In the meantime, get numicon and start counting within numbers from 10.

To your other query, he could have MLD but this is not always the case.

Sorry, my grammar was atrocious in my last post. I am very tired!