Our son is 13. He is dysgraphic and also gifted in math. He is in 8th grade and taking Algebra II with the 11th graders.
Up to now he has been doing all of his calculations in his head. I suspect he will soon reach the point where he can no longer do that. I am starting to work with him, acting as “his hands”. He tells me the equations and I write them out. He teacher has agreed to test him the same way.
Hopefully that will work for now. I was wondering if anyone out there has experience in this area could share some insights. I’ve been considering an equation editor for the future but I do not know much about them. As I understand them, they typically will solve any equation typed into them. I would be interested in an equation editor that would allow this funtion to be disabled.
Re: Dysgraphic and Gifted in Math
I believe Microsoft Office has an “equation editor” that will let you type in math symbols. It’s in the standard program but you have to look for it and “tell” Office that you want to use it. (You might even have to get the disk and install it.)
There’s also something called MathType that takes it a bit further, depending on how advanced he gets.
And, if he’s going to be doing this for a while, it may well be worth exploring voice recognition, which has made tons of progress… but I would suspect a math version would be pricey.
gifted math manipulatives
MS WORD has a secret equation editor that you have to “insert”. The instructions are online and just be sure you specify what version of Microsoft you have. Also, there are freebie versions of equation editors, but you have to cut and paste them into MS WORD if you need to e mail or something.
How badly dysgraphic? There really isn’t that much physical writing in the algebra part of solving the math problems. Could he be excused from writing out the explanations and the sentence answer as long as he is writinfg the algebra part?
Give him a rolling writer or superfine marker, NO pencils, and let him write as large and loose as he needs to. One algebra problem may take two pages and have a few cross-outs but that’s no big deal.
There is a way to type equations in Microsoft Word but it is really annoying, takes far more coordination than writing.