My 8 yr old 2nd grader daughter who is CAPD, ADHD, dyslexic, dys everything is struggling tremendously with math. She attends a private school (no LD program) so we have to work with her a great deal at home in order for her to experience any degree of success. Her classroom math instruction is based on Sadlier-Oxford Progress in Math series (for those of you familiar with that). She just doesn’t get it! Some of the wording on the final chapter tests are very confusing. It’s not a wonder that she doesn’t have a clue. And, I’m at a loss as to how to teach her math. Things that are so clear to most, are simply an unknown and make no sense to her. It’s very frustrating for me and I only imagine her frustration and anxiety. She tries so hard but it’s impossible for her. She has tremendous difficulty computing simple subtraction problems and seems to have no subtraction strategies whatsoever. I worked very long and hard with her last night on missing addends. Even when I would draw a number line and demonstrate, she just couldn’t see it or understand it. I need to so something fast before she falls further behind. Since she is in a private school, she doesn’t have to be given accommodations. However, her teacher is willing to accommodate her by reading tests aloud to her and etc.; but there’s only so much this teacher can do with 18 kids and no classroom assistance and a school with no services for LD kids! I would appreciate any advice. Thx. Susan
Re: Ideas on a Math program for CAPD daughter
Is she having trouble with the concepts or with the manipulation of the symbols? I’d strongly recommend Peggy Kaye’s “Math Games” book not just for the games, but because it’s sprinkled with very helpful descriptions of the stages we go through in understanding mathematical concepts. If she’s simply not ready yet to understand some of the concepts, then the calculation will be completely confusing and you should really focus on the concetps — wherever she is ready to work on them.
With her various”dysses,” is she stronger verbally or visually? This is important — you really want to work from her strength and bridge over to the weaker area. SO if she’s better with words, then look to lots of the “story” games in Peggy Kaye’s book. If she’s better without words, start with objects and spend a lot of time working on understanding place value concepts.
Another good reference is “Dyslexia and Mathematics,” edited by Miles & Miles. It has some good case studies and descriptions of what teachers did that worked — so when you read through it and run into a situation that rings bells, the ideas are right there ;)
Some kids just have trouble making the translation from concepts that are clear in their heads to those symbols we use to represent them. Others struggle with the concetps as well — it’s important to dig deeply enough to get to the problem and build a good foundation starting wherever that is.
What about Math facts the fun way to give her a visual reminder of the facts that she finds elusive? I have had great success with this. You can use a hands on type of approach for math like Miquon or if you feel it is the language that is holding her back then look into Lindamood-bell’s On cloud nine math…It works the verbal side more and uses manipulatives to help them understand concretely what is so abstract to them.