I am wondering what you all think of this with my son. He is 12, add/in, apd.
Tonite after working on math with my son for almost 2 hours, my husband sat down and asked if I was sure he wasn’t dyslexic. I said I wasn’t absolutely sure even though he has been tested. Anyway, the signs he saw were; reading the division problems right to left(it took a while to teach him to do add., sub., and multi. left to right when he was younger) unable to remember the value places, not able to remember how to count the decimal places in multi., and unable to see that fractions are also division problems. He doesn’t seem to be able to see that problems can be written differently and be related. Such as 3 + 6= 9,
6+3=9, 3 x 9=27, 9x3=27, 27 divided by 3=9. He doesn’t see alternatives, which hurts with the reducing of fractions as well as the above. I was looking into this on other dyslexia web sites, I found info inconclusive, even with the reading,spelling difficulties he has had in the past. He also will solve several problems correctly and then forget how to do the next one. He was doing great with the diameter, chord and rotation of circles and figures(vertical, horizontal and 90,180,270 rotations of shapes). Husband says he has no problem with shapes. I think somehow that with the fact families he may have just missed that instructional step, and I know with math everything is based on on step after another through the years. Any thoughts? Thanks y’all.
Re: new signs
Thanks. Honestly, I agree with you, I know he hasn’t had enough reinforcement on any math concept since 1st grade. The classes run through something for a couple of days and switches to something else, they might not see the first concept again for 2 weeks. I noticed this in the math book as well. Confusing for me to try and figure out. Course I have done poor in math since the 4th grade and I am 39 yrs old.
Re: new signs
I must say I agree with lack of adequate teaching could be a problem. My 8th grade son was identified with a math learning disability in 7th grade and placed in an LD math class. He has been working with the same teacher on remediating his skills for the last 2 years. Her perception is he picks up new math facts with ease and has solid basic math facts. She feels he did not get a good foundation in his lower grades and it snow balled on him in 6th grade resulting in his LD placement in 7th. Everything noted by the orginal poster my son was doing when he started in the LD class. After careful sometimes 1 on 1 instruction he is at the top of his LD class and is being recommended for placement in a regular math class next year. We have opted to have him due algerbra over 2 years instead of 1 so he is sure to get a solid foundation. I don’t know if he would of progressed this well if he had a true math disability. He does by the way have significant oral language, reading, and writing issue that have not been as easily remediated as his math has.
Re: new signs
My son had a lot of reading, spelling, comprehension problems in his 1st few years.(he still can’t spell, reads ok) Basically in 2nd grade he was still at the level of a kgartener, I was told he was a late bloomer (add and apd not considered his problem at the time) at his 1st eligibility meeting. Subsequently, in 4th grade he was found eligible for sp.ed (apparently his add and apd were finally issues causing his problems) and because of needing so much help from the teacher to get anything done in class. She was the first teacher who validated that I wasn’t just seeing things. It would seem he missed a lot of the math instruction when we were so fixated on the language problem, and the math was ok until 5th grade. I have a friend who is a middle school math tutor/teacher. I will talk with her and find out if she has space available ‘cause dad is getting burned out. Time to go back basics it looks like. Thanks y’all.
Everything you say is very very familiar in *all* my students, dyslexic or add or not or anything else. All of this is a typical pattern in the present system of curriculum, which is designed to “cover the material” rather than master anything. ALL my students do division backwards if it occurs to them. None of them know a fraction is a division until I tell them, and even then a lot of them don’t believe me. (Beloved but incompetent Miss Smith didn’t tell them so in Grade 3, and that was the last time they absorbed any math concepts.) None of them make any logical connections — thinking has been actively discouraged in their math classes, because it goes beyond the teacher’s own highly limited knowledge, and it takes away time from covering the material.
Your son may or may not be dyslexic — look at word-based issues. As far as math, the most likely bet is that he is “pedagogically impaired” as are most of his peers. If good teaching doesn’t make a dent over a fairly long time — it takes months and sometimes years to reteach the foundations and approach — then look into disabilities.