Teaching students with Math disabilities

If you click on LD Indepth and then math, you should find some good information.

Janis

there are no short answers to your questions. Is that an assignment for a class perhaps?

if you get hold of a book called Educational Care by Mel Levine it will have good answers for you.

I may have an answer for you. I’m learning disabled. I have dyscalculia. I read one posting that stated there are no short answers. This is true, however I may have a short anser for you: what you have to get- and I mean really get- is that Math is the enemy to a math disabled student- The enemy. It’s more awful and fearsome than any academic encounter you can think of.

Just let your students know that you know that math is horrible,and you have a way to make it better.

Use any game you can think of. Discuss. Allow mistakes to morph into correct answers through dialogue and working together. Anything to make math a human experience.

This is my first posting to the forum. I’m not even sure how this works. i hoep you get my reply.

You appear to be a good resource for math and special ed teachers. What od you suggest for high school LD students in regular algebra? What is the best way to assist them?

Johnathon,

I’ll think about it. Right off the bat, if you can, and I know it may be difficult if you have a full classroom, slow their(the l.d. sutdents) pace down a little. Because as soon as they miss a step, they’re cooked. I know it sounds like just common sense. But with reg. ed. students they can catch up using short-cuts. Not so l.d. kids. We need everything spelled out. Many times if a certain step in a lesson is not clear, nothing thereafter will be.

Also, if you can think of a real life application for algebra, no matter how obscure, apply it the lesson, it makes it real. With L.D. it’s very difficult to move from the analytical to the general.

Without a general idea of why algebra pertains to real life, it just feels like an assault on our weakness.

I’m going to think of specific things and post again.

Johnathon,

I’ll think about it. Right off the bat, if you can, and I know it may be difficult if you have a full classroom, slow their(the l.d. sutdents) pace down a little. Because as soon as they miss a step, they’re cooked. I know it sounds like just common sense. But with reg. ed. students they can catch up using short-cuts. Not so l.d. kids. We need everything spelled out. Many times if a certain step in a lesson is not clear, nothing thereafter will be.

Also, if you can think of a real life application for algebra, no matter how obscure, apply it the lesson, it makes it real. With L.D. it’s very difficult to move from the analytical to the general.

Without a general idea of why algebra pertains to real life, it just feels like an assault on our weakness.

I’m going to think of specific things and post again.