touch math

Not sure if this is the same thing, but my daughter learned math, where you make dots on certain places on the numbers, and use those dots to add and subtract. She’s not LD, but an honor student. She’s a senior this year and I still notice her doing it.

It was a huge help for my son when he was in first grade. It helped make the transition from using manipulatives to remembering math facts. It’s not for all kids (then again, what is?) but I’ve always been grateful that his teacher used it. The web site for the program is

http://www.touchmath.com/

Yes, that’s the idea I’ve been getting on what touch math is. Thanks for all the info. I’m definitely going to check it out. My son is 9 and really hates using the manipulatives so maybe this will help him out. I’ve heard that it works for all kinds of kids and hopefully ages too.

Touch math is great my son can use it for every type of math he has had so far.

Wish I had known it in elem. school math was not my strong point.

I sent for the catalog because it sounded like a great concept. But when I got it, it looked confusing. I haven’t pursued it.

My older son is very dependent upon finger counting and the younger one (7) just doesn’t get the addition/subtraction concept. He just constantly guesses.

The program just sounds like its alot more work than its worth. What kind of learner would you say the touch math concept works best for. I was thinking a hands-on learner but when I look through the literature, it seems more for visual learners.

My 10 year old uses TouchMath. He started it in first grade. He is on level now in math. He is a global learner.

As a special education teacher, I use touchmath with all my children. You start with basic numbers. They have addition, subtraction, mult. and division. This past year I also started using the Money and Time components.

If your son is in public school, then ask at his IEP meeting if they could incorporate it into his program. (Their answer should be yes!).

God Bless

Works with all sorts of learners- including students with Learning Impairments. The critical part is spending the time to learn where the points are on the numbers- that is the beginning piece. Once you have those down the rest is gravy. It is a great system. One caution- you do need to continue to address place value and other conceptual stuff- touchmath is not designed or intended to cover this. For straightforward calculation fluency however- it is one of the best systems out there.
Robin

I am curious, my daughter is going into first grade and they will be using Touchmath with her. She has great difficulty recalling the names of the numbers (cannot name them out of sequence above 7), and difficulty counting beyond 13. Will touchmath address these things?? She seems to have the concepts of math so far. Any input?

Like anything else- it is only as effective as the person presenting it. Certainly the constant repetition is a plus- but she will need other stuff too. It is a calculation tool- no more. She does not sound too far off for your garden variety entering first grade child- It is nice when they can all count to twenty etc but there is tremendous perfectly normal variability at this age- and HUGE surges of development.

Robin

I really appreciated your reminder of how kids at the early elementary ages are so different. We tend to forget that kids do things in their own stages and expect them to do things at the same time as ‘all the other kids’.
Have any of you seen the PBS video called, How Difficult Can This Be? I was given it to watch by my special ed teacher friend. It really helped me to understand what my kids go through. I think it will really help my frustration levels to go down. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it. We could all use a reminder about the struggles our kids deal with every day.

I’d say both. One thing that helped son “get” subtraction and addition is using a staircase. Addition you count up stairs- subtract walk down. Easy to see start at 0 count up two, then subtract two you’re right back at 0. Just hopefully you have at least 10 steps somewhere. Happened on to this while doing touch math. The poster is really useful. The kits are not worth money- my opinoion. If your kid can count to ten they can do this method. It still needs to be practiced to automaticity. If you get poster and addition and subtraction workbooks all you really need to get started. I had young friend who learned this way “tutour” him because it was automatic for her (she’s not ld by way), but when watched saw really easy. Could have done it myself. Manipulatives gave him counting breakthru. Might help your son with addition and subtraction if he’s a hands on learner. These are things like cusainairre rods that have a value and can be put together to add, subtract and count. My son’s lack of phonemaic awareness extended to numbers. Couldn’t connect values to symbols any more than he could sounds with symbols.

Thanks for the idea about the stairs. I’m going to start using that with our youngest son. He’s not LD, but he’s impatient and wants to know right now. Unfortunately for him, he’s only 4 and just can’t grasp it all. It’s kind of hard dealing with 2 of his siblings that have ADHD and LD without tending to treat him the same way. I forget sometimes that in fact, he’s quite far ahead of your typical 4 year old. So thanks for the suggestion. :)