Hello,
My son is 11 and currently in a self-contained LD classroom. He has been identified as dyslexic and LD in math. We have gotten the school to properly address his reading difficulties (he is doing OG tutoring and is making huge strides!!!). Now we are trying to tackle the math disability..
The proposed math goals for this year were taken directly from the curriculum that the teacher is going to use with the classroom. They were not developed for his individual needs. He has been doing first/second grade level math work for over 4 years now and needs to move on.
He does now finally understand addition/subtraction and can do triple, double and single digit adding and some double digit subtraction. Time concepts are pretty good and the money concepts are much improved. We feel he needs to move on to multiplication/division.
We are not sure what exactly would be beneficial for him - I think he needs to learn the multiplication facts but he will struggle with memorization/rote recall. He had difficulty with the concept that subtraction was the opposite of addition so I think he will also have difficulty with division and its relationship to multiplication.
The school has said that they are willing to let him use a calculator for multiplication - which is great - but I wonder if that will be selling him short or be detrimental later on.
Does anyone have any insight? Should we push for learning the facts by memory or a combination of memory/using the calculator? What else should he be working on that would help with learning the facts?
His cognitive abilities are average but he is greatly hindered by his long lack of success in school due to inadequate teaching/understanding of his disability.
Any thoughts and remarks would be welcome.
Thank you,
Pam
There's a book just for him.
Whatever you do, don’t make him sit and guess wrong times tables answers. At least have a chart with ‘em if they won’t let him use a calculator.
The book:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0967884020/qid%3D1030633024/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/104-6806813-2718324
or
http://www.resourceroom.net/Products/toolstimes.asp
THere’s online practice to go along with it at http://www.resourceroom.net/Math/index.asp
I’m responsible for it being Americanized — Dr. Chinn (the author) runs an award-winning “specialist school” for kids with dyslexia in England. He’s one of a handful of folks who have really spent time doing research on learning problems and mathematics (and has a few other books to his name including a teaching handbook).
What the book does is build on number knowledge so that students with weaknesses in rote memory and dealing with symbols can really comprehend the whole “multiplication” thing. It starts with the zeros, and with understanding that no matter how many times you don’t do something, no matter what it is, you still haven’t done anything. Then it goes to the ones… with lots of visuals, etc. There’s an accompanying workbook (with copying rights so more than one student can use it — if you order it from resource room we can even send it as a computer file so it could be printed out as many times as you wanted).
I am a special education teacher at an intermediate school. I use several different strategies to teach children with learning disabilities multiplication facts.
For example: - First we learn how to count by a number. For example, most children can already count by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s. If the problem was 2 x 5, I tell them to say to themselves count by 2 five times. We work on counting by the numbers 1-9 that they do not know. We do it orally, I put the numbers on cards and they jump from number to number on the floor. (3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30) Then, we they see the multiplication problem, they are able to count by a number so many times. There is also a way to use your fingers for your 9’s facts. Hold up your ten fingers in front of you. Starting on the left your pinky left hand is number 1, then your next finger is 2, your left thumb is five, right thumb is 6, and so on. If the fact was 9 x 3. You put your left middle finger down. Every finger to the left of the finger down, you count by 10’s. 10, 20 Then every finger to the right you count by 1’s. There you be 7 fingers to the right. So 9 times 3 is 27. The kids love this and think it’s magic. Sometimes kids learn them by songs. I have a rap tape that teaches multiplication and division facts. Each child learns differently, you just have to see what strategy your child can learn best from. I hope this has been some help to you. There is also another way if a child knows their 1 through 5 multiplication facts to use their fingers, but it’s a little more complicated to write down. Don’t give up, there are many ways to learn multiplication facts, besides rote memorization.