advice? math problems with AD/HD

While schools have many things in common, they can also be very different from each other. The ‘tone’ of one school can be very different from the next as can their attitude and way of dealing with struggling students.

You’re not going to be able to turn his new school into his old school and sadly it sounds as if the new school is a doozy. It also sounds as if your son might have some touches of what’s sometimes called dyscalcuia or a learning difference in math.

But why does his homework take hours? Is it math alone that’s causing the homework to take hours? In any case, it sounds as if you should request testing and do that in writing. Your son needs an IEP and in that IEP perhaps you could have his homework modified or have shortened assignments.

Until then, he clearly needs help and I’d say you and your husband shouldn’t hesitate to be generous with helping with homework. Don’t worry about whether your son is being independent or responsible with his homework right now. With his AD/HD he’s not ready to be independent with his homework. Do whatever you have to do to get the homework done as quickly as possible. Let him dictate his homework to one of you and you can type it up for him to save time.

There are also some fun sites on the Web to play practice multiplication tables. Try www.funbrain.com.

I’d also suggest talking to his pediatrician or family doctor about the AD/HD and see what they might say.

Good luck.

It sure sounds like somebody’s abdicated responsibility for teaching and it might be helpful to figure out who. I suspect the teacher because of all those “compromises,” and in some ways because behavior is being focused on so intently.
I would send a firm and factual letter to the teacher, the principal, the head of sped in that building and the head of sped in that system, with something like:
I am writing to express my deep concern over my son’s educational progress. In Previous School, the concerns of both teachers and myself [or my husband and I] led us to do preliminary screening, which indicated that a fulll evaluation for learning disabilities was merited. My son has been specifically struggling with elementary math skills, and the preliminary testing showed a significant gap in these skills compared to his other skills. A full evaluation is necessary to determine how best to address this significant gap in his skills.
His teacher (and/or principal or whoever) has suggested that there is not a gap in his skills based upon his grades in the class. HOwever, I enclose a copy of a typical test. The grade DOES NOT reflect his skills. I fully understand not wishing to give him a failing grade, especially since he is trying very hard. However, it would be a terrible mistake to then take this grade and incorrectly interpret it as indicating that he is progressing satisfactorily.
At this point, he is learning only failure and frustration in math; he is also beginning to engage in behaviors which none of us would like to continue. HOmework is an esp[ecially difficult battle, since the math skills he is assigned are not within his grasp, even with assistance from his father. Therefore, until we have had the evaluation and can determine appropriate action, I think it would be best if we gave him 25 minutes of appropriate math activities at home instead of the class’s assignment.
I do appreciate your time and effort in helping make this difficult situation better. I know you wish for success for every child in school, mine included. I am sure that by working together, we can be one child closer to attaining that wish.

Sincerely…

(If you want some ideas for appropriate math work, I’d be glad to help — especially if you have some of those prelimnary tests results that would show where he stands.)

My daughter struggled with the mulitiplication table. Here is what I did:
(1) Working at home is a great way to win for your son.
(2) Explain that there are only 100 (10 x 10) facts that you will have to memorize. It is possible to memorize 100 things.
(3) I tried several different games for basic math facts. One seemed to work for her so she spent a lot of time playing it. Unfortunately, that game is no longer produced. See if you can locate one if you have a computer.
(4) Play a game with the multiplication cards. Choose to only work on one set of numbers at a time, like the “2 times”. Add up points each time there is a right answer. NO penalty for wrong answers. 5 point for a right answer.
(5) Accumulate 200 points go get an icecream cone. 500 points go to a movie. Dream up something. My daughter loved building up her points.

Jim — Michigan

I would recommend that she really UNDERSTAND multiplication. A variety of manipulatives are good with helping with this. The manual for On Cloud Nine is very useful for helping kids visualize math facts.

As a matter of fact, there are NOT 100 math facts to memorize.
All 0 facts are easy if the kid understands this, likewise 1s and 10s.
2s are a snap if the kid knows about doubling. 5s can be learned without much memorization if the kid understands how to count by 5 (and the same goes for 3 though I don’t think it is quite so easy). There is a pattern to 5s as well. An even no. produces a no. ending in 0 (2 X 5, 4X5 , etc. ) an odd no. produces a no. ending in 5 (3X 5, 5X5). In fact, skip counting, ie counting by 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, and 10s is great practice— no, lets say a requirement for doing multiplication. Then there is are a few tricks for 9s.
If you can do all the above there are only around 10 facts to memorize.
BUT it helps to KNOW what you are doing and not just do the nos the way the teacher told you to.

I think the funbrain.com and so on are fine for practice but make sure that the kid knows what he is doing and then make sure he doesn’t need to memorize facts he can get by other means.

The same is true for addition, btw.

—des

They’re done in that conceptually-based order on my site (http://www.resourceroom.net/math has the link) — back in ‘97 when I did that, the only online practice I could find quizzed you on them all at once. I think that like reading and many other things math, a common problem is biting off too much to chew and swallow at once, so I even broke down the harder sets, even though by the time you get to the sixes you’ve learned more than half of them.

And… it may be necessary and it’s always a good idea to throw in a visual and verbal components. “If you say you’re going to run five miles, and you’ve done it zero times, how far have you run?” “How about if you say you’re going to run 567 miles, zero times?” (It’s a little harder to explain why anything to the zero *power* is 1…) Using big ol’ pink index cards as manipulatives and making rows and columns of them can be a huge help, too.

thank you all so much,

so I have heard of the iep before at the old school, and I realize that it means they recognize a problem but what exactly happens once I can get them to do that with him? does he get different work? or what?

thanks for the links to funbrain those games look promising.

as far as the hours on homework it is just the math causing the problem.
he can finish all his other subjects in 30 minutes or so and then we get stuck on math for the rest of the night. as far as math facts go we have been trying to learn those since over the summer. so far he can go to the 3’s after a practice session but if you ask what is 3x7 an hour later he is a blank. I have tried them in order, out of order, I’ve tried grouping like “2x3 and 3x2 equal 6” he just can’t keep them in his head. and i hurts my feelings because they really don’t believe me I think. he has alittle multiplication electronic game he plays. nothing helps very much.

I have told him not to worry, I don’t hold any bad math grades against him. I had the same problems in math (but not as bad). I have told him that as long as he makes his usual good grades in other subjects I will not punish him for math problems. I was always fussed at and punished for bad math grades and it made me end up hating and resenting school altogether. I don’t want that to happen with him. Is this tactic ok?

Storm

I’m not a teacher, just a mom, but I definitely agree with your tactic of telling him that the world doesn’t end because of poor math grades as long as he is trying his best. You know that he is trying his best, so to stress him out about it will only create a more solid emotional roadblock which would probably effect him negatively in many ways.

Good luck!

Lori

Soapbox alert :-)

If you can avoid it, don’t pass on to his generations the “it’s okay to not be able to do math.” It’s “okay,” but he shouldn’t accept that at his age.

It’s okay not to be able to do math in the inappropriate way he’s beiing asked to. It’s okay to get lousy *grades* in math. I’d say; it’s okay to forget the stupid homework and work on something in math that he can be successful with, at whatever level he is.
YOu might want to invest in the Landmark School’s math program which is a more structured, multisensory type program that they use for their smart kiddos with LDs. You could even send in stuff for him to do during math time — one of those cases where if another kid wanted to know how come he was doing something different the teacher should say “BEcause I Said So. You take care of your math work, and Arthur will take care of his.” And if the kiddo starts talking about it being easir and Arthur being too stupid, that kiddo would sacrifice some of his free time with a discussion or several discussions until s/he could tell the teacher just why it’s inappropriate to be rude and disrespectful to otehr students, and that when they are getting straight A’s in everything and are also training for the Olympic decathlon, perhaps you will entertain such silliness.
But that’s just my opinoin :)

Another great program is Math U See. It also takes the logical approach to learning the times tables and spends a lot of time in skip counting. However, if you get it do NOT get the extra practice. All it is extra problems which you can easily think of, imo. This is a nice inexpensive program with the manipulatives at a nice cost.

going to go check out Sue’s division of problems. It is true that if you teach it logically, there really isn’t that much for the kid to memorize. Contrary to one post 100 problems IS a lot to memorize, esp. if the kid has problems with memorization, which some do. OTOH conceptualizing what you are doing, many of these kids are very bright and can definitely do this.

I agree with Sue re: telling your kid it is ok to be bad at something. Your kid gets permission to fail. I remember my dad telling me this. It was not useful. OTOH, they didn’t know what they were doing in teaching it back then. I think having unconditional love for your kid is quite important but a little different than telling him it’s ok to fail.

—des

Just wanted to clarify what I meant when I said the world won’t end because of poor math grades. I didn’t mean to imply that he should quit and accept failure. I agree with the teachers on this board. I just meant that to stress him out about it is so harmful. He tries so hard and does well in his other subjects. You do all you can and if he still does poorly you just try to keep the outlook on life good because he will find his niche in the grownup world. I’ve had to make my son realize so many times that everyone has their stregnths and their weaknesses because he has struggled so in the organizational arena, particularly with writing. He’s had OT and various other therapies including vision therapy. So telling him everyone has weaknesses doesn’t mean that you don’t try to stregthen them, as we have. But I think it’s important for the kids to know that it’s okay not to be naturally good at everything, and some things can be a real struggle. I was looking at it more from a parent’s perspective…sorry.