Misunderstanding directions????

just one wee thought— I’ve seen teachers use posters with the “language of math” — for example when you read “how many more”, “all together”, etc. it means addition. Difference, take away, how many fewer, etc. mean subtract. sounds like more of a language issue than anything.

Everyday math can be confusing. Many children and their parents are confused by it and the way it asks questions.

Your son’s answers to you, however, are interesting. To me, he’s making simple mistakes with a complicated math textbook - nothing to worry about - and he’s coming up with some pretty creative answers to your probing questions. (What number did he think was used more often in the ‘universe’??)

He sounds like a very bright guy to me. I wouldn’t be concerned about mistakes in his math homework. Help him to correct it but don’t worry if a young child makes mistakes with Everyday Math homework problems.

And as to reading too quickly to pick up directions, many young children do that. Most slow down in their reading as they get older, other people do it through life. Reading directions too quickly does not impair our learning really not need it impair our lives. I’m such a person and I can usually find someone else to read those boring directions and explain them to me. While there are those like me who find directions tedious, there are plenty out there who are intrigued by them and burrow into them happily.

To me there are several red flags in this description:
skipping small words in reading
getting the general gist but omitting details
re-interpreting directions

All of these add up to a guesser. In early years there’s always some of this and you just need to gently lead him to go over the instructions, re-verbalize them, and explain what he is supposed to do. Sometimes you do have to explain the language of math; there are certain understood concepts. If he continues this way past primary, you have another confused math phobic on your hands. Math depends on details — that’s kind of the point, measure and accuracy and all that — so skipping over them is not effective. Try to get it out of the way as soon as possible.

Agree with Victoria (as usual :-) ) — there are real issues to be addressed here, with attention to details and guessing. Half of learning math *is* learning to attend to exactly what the question is asking — and frankly, learning to do this is the part that yes, really is useful in “real life.”

One strategy that works for kids with these langauge issues is highlighting those “key phrases.” Sometimes it takes old fashioned practice with “what’s difference? Subtraction” drills; so you start each day with 2 minutes spent on ‘em. (“What’s the difference between 20 and 30?” What’s the sum of 3 and 5?”)

These are different issues than fundamental math concept difficulites — but every bit as important to deal with.

Thanks, all, for your responses to my questions.

I think you’re right…he’s a guesser. I just don’t have a handle on why. He’s a very creative type and I’ve described him many times as a “big picture guy”. He’s got great ideas, and little time or patience for the details. This applies to many things with him.

I often wonder how much an attention deficit effects his overall being in many ways. Is it just too difficult to really think hard about something that isn’t important to him at the moment ????? Or is there some deficit even deeper than that? He just seems so bright sometimes and so *you know* other times.

I was also thinking about his reading. I’m not really being accurate myself when I call him a word skipper. That’s really not it at all. He’s very fluent and more than anything interjects words that aren’t even there when he reads aloud (don’t know what he does when reading to himself!)…he’ll even paraphrase vs. reading it exactly as it appears. His eyes are somewhere else (I’ve watched!) while he’s still “reading” something. I.E. he’s viewed it and is already elsewhere on the page when he’s still saying the words. Don’t know what you call this..but don’t think it’s skipping as most people refer to it - is it? This started way back in Kindergarten - he’d actually start laughing about something 2 lines down from what he was reading at the time.

I’m going to get another developmental vision exam done to try to determine how much visual efficiency issues might be effecting the reading issue. He’s been in VT 2x, but nothing like Linda F. has described.

Back to math, he’s a real paradox. There are weaknesses, no doubt. I will definitely follow the advice given and if anyone has any other advise to offer, I’d love to hear from you!

Thanks so much!

Lori

I’d suspect with the reading that he thinks a whole lot faster than he reads out loud. Does he know how to “phrase” — sort of peek ahead while he’s reading to anticipate what it will say, instead of just thinkingabout it in his own mind? (I remember being told about this and it made me a better reader instantly… and I was already a very gtood reader).
This has me thinking, there may be a similar processing speed discrepancy happening with the math and that maybe if he has to try & answer correctly but *fast* he’d do better. Insane thought :-)

Sue,
I’m not certain I understand the difference between the “phrasing” you mentioned and “just thinking about it in your own mind”. Could you please clarify…I’m anxious to hear what you think about this!

I do think he assumes what something is going to say and therefore he paraphrases sometimes. I am concerned about this lack of accuracy however when he has to read textbooks and directions. Changing 1 or 2 words can definitely effect comprehension of the work being taught. He doesn’t slow down like he should when he needs to read for understanding, i.e. directions or textbook material. I don’t mean to say that you don’t read to understand a fictional book, but I don’t think each word is so important and you have a flow going. He also will skip right over words he doesn’t know, which used to be few and far between but are not more frequent. I started to wonder whether his phonics skills were not up to par as he didn’t pay any attention to being taught them in K, 1 and 2 as he was already reading way above grade level. I took a few words he didn’t know and he did sound them out well. I just think he prefers not to slow down and try to sound them out. In the past he could comprehend what was going on without them, but again, things are getting more complex so I don’t think that will hold up.

As far as math, I don’t think he’s a fast processor of computations. But because speed is important to him, he has a tendency to guess fast rather than stop and think about it first. And he hates doing something twice!

I’d love to hear your take on this.

Lori

Gee, the whole language gurus would maintain that skipping those hard words is fine since, after all, if it’s important it will be repeated. (That’s what ol’ Ken Goodman says. Honest. He doesn’t at all deal with how this happens more and more often if you don’t learn to figure them out.)
I would strongly encourage you to give him 10-15 minutes practice oral reading with you every night or a few times a week with a story he will really get into. He would really benefit from getting out of this “skip on through” habit.
The way I do this is to arm the both of us with pencils and we face each other — but tha’ts ‘cause I read well upside down and these aren’t my flesh & blood :) We both track along as we read — him under the words, me over them. I read a paragraph, with good expression and fluency and phrasing. (http://www.resourceroom.net/beyond_decoding/phrasing_dec2001.asp explains phrasing and includes activities for it).
Then he reads — and if he makes a mistake the pencils stop and at first (until he figures out that when my pencil has stopped he needs to fix somthing) say “try that word again?” or something like that. I can communicate a lot with the pencil — if he dropped a syllable I gently scoop over it; if he started off wrong I’ll gently mark (okay, I work on that gentleness — you can also communicate impatience :)) over the first letter or syllable. If it’s a weird word or I really want to keep the flow going for wahtever reason, I”ll just say the word and have him read it too and keep going.
Those gentle marks are what I take at the end of our session for putting words into a notebook to be learned — no more than four or five on any given day, or whatever works for your kids’ frustration level. We start each day with those words and when he’s gotten ‘em five times in a row they get a star and just get reviewed once a week or as needed.
If you’ve got another minute and a half or two, use those words to target unknown phonics (or irregular) patterns. Words like “stared” are wickedly hard and need more than just practice in isolation or you’ll always get that “started” guess. So practice a list of “cared scared stared shared spared” — and have him highlight the “are” part.
I was surpised at the very positive effect on morale that the growing word list has. Being able to look back at 20 words that, two months ago, you could *not* read — but now with daily practice, they are easy — is a formidable ally against the “why bother, I”ll never learn this” monster.

Second and third everything Sue said. This is vital stuff — work through the frustration to the “wow, I see how this works now” level. Don’t let guessing and skipping go on — it only gets worse and worse. And yes, it messes up the math. Keep up the good fight.