Number recognition

Somewhere on this website (a link off the home page, I think), I read an article about having children “walk” numbers and letters to learn them. I’d consider using masking tape on the floor for the “walking” and just do one number at a time, at least at first.

Also, Addition Facts the Fun Way might help. The book has silly stories with colorful pictures in which the numbers are characters. It’s a great way for LD kids to learn addition facts, but I think it could also be used effectively for number recognition. The book isn’t expensive and you can order it right from the website (http://www.citycreek.com)

The same question was posed on a homeschooling board at http://www.vegsource.com, so you may want to do a search there for other ideas. One poster recommended teaching only 0 through 9 first, until thoroughly learned, before moving on to two-digit numbers, and I think that is a good idea too.

Mary

Mary,
Thanks for the suggestions. I checked into the CityCreek site and asked for a catalog. I also checked out the vegsource site.

I’ve tried the tape on the floor and doing one number at a time. No luck there.
I do appreciate your help. If you have any brainstorms, please let me know!

I think your best bet is the Addition Facts the Fun Way book from citycreek, then. You can order the book from the website, and that would be the only thing you would need for work on number recognition.

The stories revolve around math facts, but the characters in the stories (I would tell them the stories) are all shaped out of numbers. For example, 3 is the 3-bee, complete with head and wings. After drawing pictures of the 3-bee, I think a kindergartner would be able to start making the connection with a 3. For example, give the child a paper printed with the 3-part of the bee’s body, and let them add on the head and wings. Or give them papers with the head and wings, and let them add the 3.

The sick 6’s should be pretty easy too.

Mary

Just a thought- It may be that the children (being young) don’t really find any reward in this skill. When my two LD children were young I sometimes resorted to setting up a reward system to get them motivated to remember something they were not particularly interested in. This worked remarkably well (although it made me sad that the accomplishment alone was not enough reward). For example, it wasn’t that my son did not know how to brush his teeth, put on his shoes, etc, but he simply was not motivated to internalize these skills until we set up a chart of before school tasks to complete on time with a reward for doing so. Later we dropped the rewards, but he kept on with the established routine. In a classroom, something like one gets to keep the M&Ms or goldfish crackers or marbles or pennies if they are correctly counted out and the symbol for the number is correctly identified - perhaps the child also gets to add a sticker on a chart and when there are 20 stickers on the chart pick a small toy from a box of trinkets. It is, however, a lot of work to set this up and be consistent with a large group of children.

It seems you really have tried everything, so there are no guarantees for success, but here are a few thoughts.

First, you mention only numbers. Are these kids doing OK with letters, then? That is really diagnostic — if they can recognize letters reasonably consistently, then there isn’t a neurological deficit in symbol recognition. If they are lost with letters too, time to go back to the drawing board and work on visual processing skills and kinesthetic learning, before even attempting numbers.

If they are OK on letters, then HOW did they learn the letters? What worked? Did you have them trace the letters while saying the sounds? OK, do more of that with numbers. Did you embed the letters in pictures? OK, do more of that for numbers, as suggested above. And so on.

A general suggestion for all teaching and especially for math: *SLOW DOWN*. Anything is easy — if you already know how. I think downhill skiing is easy; I’ve done it for thirty-eight years. I think abstract algebra is easy; I’ve taken eight semesters of it. You probably would not think these things were easy if I dumped you in the middle of them. Your kids are lost and confused. And all of your excellent efforts at teaching them haven’t worked and they are seeing themselves as failures. OK, time to pitch everything out and start fresh at day one. First we don’t teach numbers for a while at all. We tell the kids time out because you (not they) have done something that didn’t work and you want to get ready and do it right. If this were earlier in the year I’d suggest taking a month off, but right now take at least a three days to a week to decompress. Then very very *very* slowly re-introduce one number at a time. Monday we do 1. We draw one dot on a piece of poster board (simple dot, no ducks or clowns or leprechauns; we want to concentrate on one thing and one thing only, the singleness of it, so one plain round dot). We draw the number 1 beside the dot. We say the word “one”. We post the board for reference. The kids fill a page with number 1’s, and they *say* out loud “one” *each* time they draw the number. Tuesday we do 2. We draw two dots on a piece of posterboard. We count them “one, two” while pointing to each one. We draw the number 2 beside the dots. We post this. The kids fill a page of 2’s, saying “two” out loud *each* time they form the number. Wednesday we do NOT go on — we review 1 and 2. We point at the single dot and say “one”, and we point at the pair of dots and say “one, two” . Then the kids get a sheet with single dots and pairs of dots and we go through it with them: How many dots? “one”. Draw a 1. Say “one” as you draw. How many dots? “two”. Draw a 2. Say “two” as you draw. We go through about ten examples. Thursday we do 3. Friday we review 1, 2, and 3. Sure, it’s as slow as an arthritic snail. But in three weeks, the kids should at least be doing 1 through 9 accurately, which is more than now, so it’s an improvement!

Then when you get to 10, it’s important to start working on the base ten pattern (otherwise, it’s just destroying the good work already built up — I finally figured out 1, 2, 3, and now my teacher says “one two” says “twelve” and I am confused so I fold up and quit again). We use an abacus (a real one, and pictures of dots in rows of ten on posters and board and overhead). First we count orally “one, two, … , nine, ten, eleven, twelve” and we make sure we can count accurately up to twelve. Then we notice that ten is one whole row and no more, eleven is one whole row and one more, and twelve is one whole row and two more. We introduce the patterns of numerals 10, 11, and 12 as “the *first* number tells you how many *whole rows of ten* and the **second** number tells you **how many more** beads on the last row”. We spend two or three days or a week just on the oral counting and the abacus. THEN we write 10 beside ten dots one day, 11 beside eleven dots the next day, and so on. (with the dots drawn in pattern, as rows of ten and so many more).

In another couple of weeks we meet twenty and we see we now have two rows of ten and how many more. By this time the pattern should be catching on and many kids will have an illuminating flash of light and take off ahead of you. Let them, but keep drilling slowly in class.

As an addendum to this, IF the kids are doing OK on phonics, also introduce the written form of the numbers — write the word “one” below the symbol 1 on the poster,the woprd “two” below the symbol 2, and so on. Only the word “one” is hopeless phonetically; all the rest of the number words are additional clues.

Good luck

You might try TouchMath. It’s a wonderful program that assigns ‘touch’points to numbers. Each number has that many ‘touch’ points. There are touch points for numbers 0-9 only. Students learn to ‘count on’ and ‘count back’ for moving up and down the number line. For students who cannot remember the value of a number, such as LD students, it provides a way for them to recognize that numbers have a real value. As they practice with fun ways, I have found that they can generalize the touch points over to numbers without touch points. When they get to this point, they have internalized the touch points/value of the numbers, and they are on their way with numeration. Good luck!