I have a 5th grade child who is struggling in math, while doing very well in all of his other subjects. Through 3rd grade he did well in all of his subjects and was one of the first in his class to learn his math facts. Starting in fourth grade, however, he began to strugge with concepts requiring number sense, and he’s stalled at multiple digit division. Mulitple step problems are difficult and place value seems difficult too. Multiplying or dividing by 1000 is strangely difficult for him.
We had him tested and the results showed a wisc-iii result of 113 verbal and 87 performance. in the performance section a scaled score of 6 in picture completion and 6 in coding (9th percentile) stood out. a follow up testing had a 115/108 score, but showed a low digit span score; another test showed low math reasoning scores and low auditory perception scores. neither psychologist recommended any special interventions for his math education, however.
My child is beginning to get frustrated and discouraged and I think some intervention is needed, but I need some direction. Again, I’ve been to two psychologists who have not recommended any special interventions for math. Please note that my child is doing very well in all his other classwork and has been well behaved.
Specifically: how should I work with him on his math? What strategies have been successful for teaching math to children with his profile?
You might try both Math U See (teaches every single concept with manipulatives and concretely— and I might add is at a reasonable cost) and On Cloud Nine (which adds visualization which the NVLD kid may not be strong in, still it builds it, and also teaches concretely). I don’t think it is a complete program and may be using both as well and I think the programs will work well together. Math U See goes into more detail on teaching specific math facts for example. Math u see is very reasonable. One level is about $150, which goes for 2-3 years.
math U see from www.mathusee.com
and On Cloud Nine from http://www.lblp.com/gander/index.html
You only need the manual, unifix blocks, and maybe the number line— other stuff is easily made.
—des