visual perception

Umm — Grade 1 and doing fractions and double-digit addition and subtraction??

When I was teaching Grade 1, the book only went up to sums up to ten so as to make it easy to count on the fingers; I was considered quite radical to go beyond it and teach the kids up to 9 + 9 and 18 - 9.

There is a happy medium here. The book I was given had too low expectations and set the kids up to work slowly and not be able to do advanced work in middle school. But your teacher is apparently trying to teach all of the standard Grade 2 curriculum as well as Grade 1.

When I talk to people who are doing this kind of thing, they invariably put their noses in the air and say snootily that this is a “better” school with “higher standards”. Well, there is only one answer to that, and it is to ask them to put their money where their mouth is. If the system is so fantastic and the kids are so far ahead that they can do two years of work in one year, where are all the classrooms full of high school students doing AP calculus in Grade 10 *and* succeeding in it and doing college math successfully in Grades 11 and 12? Well, I have never yet seen a system where this is happening on a general basis. Yes, there are always a few advanced kids in every area who do such things, but the general high school level is still most scraping through Algebra 2 and forgetting it as fast as possible, and some doing pre-calculus in Grade 12, and a few doing AP calculus.

By the way, in Europe *most* students do calculus in Grades 10 and 11, AND in many countries of northern Europe kids don’t even start school until they are over age 7. A fast start does *not* guarantee advanced position at the end; quite the opposite, it’s a tortoise and hare situation. Start out well and get things right the first time and you can pull ahead in high school; rush yourself to exhaustion in primary school and then you spend high school collapsing and remediating.

None of this is to say that you shouldn’t get a good vision exam; certainly do that, and look into developmental optometry (see Rod’s posts on Teaching Reading). But expectations still need to be reasonable, and mastery of foundations beats rushing ahead without understanding every time.

My son has a visual perception issue. He has some trouble reading and writing because of it.He has an IEP for it at school. He does ok with math but sometimes will confuse the plus and minus sign if there are addition and subtraction problems on a page. He has received Occupational therapy with excellent results.
It was a struggle to get the OT to treat him at first. He is very coordinated and I think possibly twice exceptional. Gifted and learning disabled. Twice exceptional kids often mask their ld with their gifts so many teachers don’t see the gift or the disability. They just see a child who has trouble with some things some times.

Well I am glad I pushed for special services because it has made a huge difference. He reads well above grade level now and his writing is much impoved.

He now likes to work on complex algebra problems although he is in second grade.

I am also considering interactive metronome for him this summer.

Good luck

Gifted is good, and I am experienced with it, and with the difficulties of the unevenly- developing child (why not read Lord of the Rings at the same time you’re trying to learn to write capital letters?) Do remember that advanced work needs to be grounded in reality and facts; just because you’re good at algebra doesn’t mean you can ignore multiplication tables and fraction arithmetic. Many gifted kids lose out because they skip this groundwork and then hit a wall where mastery is needed. Try for a balance, half the time on advanced conceptual work and half on mastery of foundations. One problem is that many elementary teachers equate learning with poundage of paper with filled-in blanks, and this is both frustrating and boring to the mentally quick/ physically slow-developing child. Make sure the material is learned and mastered, but oral testing and problem-solving can replace most or all of the repetitive filling-in.

Why does she think it’s a visual perception problem? (I’m wondering if she didn’t know someone for whom this was the problem… there’s a tendency for people to project their own experience on everybody else. If they know of someone who struggled and found a solution they’re eager to share that happiness… or the teacher could know what she’s talking about and sees this as the thing holding him back, as opposed to him being a normal kiddo who isn’t ready for fractions in first grade.

My daughter was diagnosed by a “Behavioral Optomotrist” as having a pretty severe vision perception problem. She had many signs that her school could not identify. This doctor screened her in 45 minutes. He suggested 30 sessions of vision therapy, which she completed in about 6 weeks. It made a HUGE difference in her ability to read, comprehend and focus. Her confidence has really gotten a boost! This doctor is well known for his work in this field (Dr. Kageyama in Campbell, California). Now I need to get help with her problems in math!

My son went through 6 months of therapy for the same diagnosis, but in his case he NEVER had any problems with Math. His reading comprehension stunk because his eyes were all over the page looking at words but he was moving a grade up for math because he was advanced.

Point being, even if the teacher “knew” a child with Visual Processing issues, the same symptoms cannot be used as a diagnosis by a non-professional. I am a teacher and I can pick out a child I “think” has ADHD based on living with my son for the last 10 years and my husband who has it as well, but I would NEVER suggest to a parent that their child has ADHD!!!!

About the curriculum issue, our curriculum teaches not only double digit addition and subtraction in 1st grade, but also regrouping in addition. Regrouping in subtraction is left for 2nd grade. Each state has a basic curriculum that districts must meet, but a district may teach beyond that guideline if the circumstances warrant it. An advanced curriculum only becomes a problem when students are overidentified as LD or basic skills due to the advanced curriculum.