My 13 year old NLD son is gifted in math, but has difficulties with visual spatial tasks like graphing, aligning numbers,etc. He also has difficulty moving information from his calculator to paper, remembering to label things, and showing all of the steps of his work (especially when using a calculator). On his tests in Algebra 1, he does well on the part of the test that he does by hand. But the part of the test that requires that he use a calculator and transfer his answers to the test, or graph his answers, he loses all kinds of points.
He will be taking Algebra 2 next year, and we would like to add accommodations to his IEP to help him in the areas that have caused problems for him this year. He gets the concepts, but misses points on 1quizes and tests because of his NLD issues.
Any ideas about what accommodations might be helpful? Thanks in advance. Leah
Re: Help with Accommodations for Algebra
A scribe would be a great idea. And at some point just recognizing that test scores won’t indicate his knowledge level will help a lot. These kids are sometimes the ones who (believe it or not) ace the SAT math stuff because there’s so much verbal reasoning.
HI! I teach CWC algebra 1. An option we used is a scribe, namely, another student or myself sat with the student and wrote down his answers, monitored the calculator, etc. Does your child have resource time? He can take the test in the resorce class. I have also used a graph template on the tests, and my students fill in the points, etc. This is great for kids with visual-spatial issues and fine motor difficulties. I used many more accomodations this year, but this is the best I can do off the top of my head. :o) If you’d like more ideas, I’d be happy to help!