My son has a written expression disability. He is experiencing problems in Math. He knows his facts. But at this point in his school career the math consist of numerous steps. (Grade 7) His IEP has always dealt with the writing process. Do you think he needs to apply the written expression problems to Math? I see him making errors that involve writing down facts. Would we need to have him retested? I am not wanting to put him under that pressure again. Opinions comments welcomed.
Re: Written expression disability and how it is related to M
Also, kids who have written expression difficulties often have problems with sequencing. That affects their ability to carry out multi-step processes like those involved in math problems. Another thing to consider is that kids who have trouble with handwriting also have trouble writing problems so that the numbers line up, etc. That, of course, can cause them to come up with a wrong answer. Finally, if the child is thinking about writing numbers properly and lining them up on the page, chances are he is not able to fully focus on the substance of the math problem and will need extra time.
Andrea
Re: Written expression disability and how it is related to M
Not to be off topic here, but I’ve found that having my son use graph paper for all of his math, really helps in lining up numbers and keeping the columns straight. Interestingly, forcing him to write smaller has also helped with legibility (his numbers seem to be written with more control). I would have thought the opposite would happen.
Re: Written expression disability and how it is related to M
My kids has severe written expression problems, but is fairly successful in math BUT—to get her through 6th and 7th grade math (into pre algebra etc) I had to teach her the math and not leave it for the teacher. I broke down every problem in to the smallest steps —often in the books, they make assumptions of what you know in between the steps and take short cuts. Then I would have her do 10 problems, using a list of the steps on the top of the page. With practice, she could remember the steps—though sometimes she needs prompting. Graft paper helped—also, sometimes I would turn regular paper sideways, and have her work the math in the columns (the old horizontal lines) then she didn’t feel so different from the other kids.
Story problems are the worst, because again, assumptions are made without being laid out. I have her list all information in the problem in the form of a short fact sentence. then she writes what the question is?—what are they asking for?, then she can usually see the formula that she needs to use and can solve it. The only way she is now in Algebra 1 in 8th grade is that I taught her the math one on one and had a tutor also work with her—to break down every new operation in to very small steps. I also made her lists of formulas and rules—that she could refer to since her math books were visually cluttered and had no direct list of just the rules and formulas.
good luck.
My son has a problem with written expression and math. I believe, in my son’s case, he lacks symbol imagery. My son can visualize gestalt images to understand a story. He can describe with great visual detail what the boy is wearing, the color of his hair, right down to his shoes. He has great reading and listening comprehension.
My son does not see the actual symbols(letters and numbers) in his head. He has had difficulty with math facts and spelling while writing a story. He will spell phoneticly because he can’t hold the picture of the word great in his head although he has read that word many times. He will instead write grate.
I have done some exercises that came from lindamood bell seeing stars manual and from another book I have. This has helped my son. Lately he has been spelling really well. When we go over his spelling words he can spell them backwards and forwards because now he can hold the image of the word in his head.
I need to do this more with math but with all the things we do it hasn’t been a focus lately.