I have a 6 year old daughter who is diagnosed as dyslexic. She has had great difficulty learning the names of the letters and numbers. It seems she has the concepts of math, but cannot recall the names of the numbers. She does not recognize them out of sequence above six. She can count to 13. When she counts objects, she will count them correctly, and say “seven owls”, but will have no idea what to write. Also, put the numbers in front of her, and she cannot name them above 6 out of order. Are there any programs or books that might be helpful to get her to remember the names and to help her count higher. We count all the time, work with the numbers. Just looking to see what else might be helpful. There is alot for letters, and alot for math as far as addition so on, but what for a child who can’t recall the names of the numbers and has difficulty counting? Any ideas?
Re: Learning the Numbers
I don’t have a suggestion, rather an observation. What if you work from her strengths rather than her areas of weakness?
What are her strong areas? ?music, sports, puzzles? Try to use an area she is strong in to teach a problem area. you might try singing the numbers. Kids often memorise better to music. Geraldine
Re: Learning the Numbers
Cusainaire Rods. These are color coded bars with different values. Using manipulatives helped my son connect the numbers with their values and count past ten. Like your daughter he could understand values but had trouble connecting the number to it’s symbol. For example he could add 3 + 4 before he could count to 10. The director at Lindamood Bell agreed with my theory that he was trying to “read” numbers and that was what had him blocked. The manipulatives helped him to switch the number processing to the math center of the brain is our guess and once he had the signals going to the right place he could count. Just our experience. The rods are available from online teaching supply stores.
Look at the materials used for learning letters and take a look at the amount of repetition. Then do the same for numbers; repeat many ways in many places and at many times. Use kinesthetic skills (very inportant) of tracing the numbers (in correct writing form top to bottom — don’t teach a mistake!). Consider buying several — as in three to five or even more — basic number workbooks, and having her work through all of them, to get the necessary repetiton without making it excessively dull or mechanical. Have her trace numbers on wet window panes, in sand, etcetera, to keep working on the form and feel. Use markers and lots of clean white paper so the visual form is large and clear and the arm motions are unhindered.
This advice also works for learning letters, again stressing correct forms, top to bottom except d which is circle first, and all lead-in circles counter-clockwise — this WILL come back to haunt you in all sorts of writing problems later if you do counter-productive habits now.