Learning Disabilities (Mathematics and Organizational Skills)
If your topic is learning disabilities with a focus on mathematics and organizational difficulties, please post the answers to your four questions here.
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Anonymous
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1) This disability is defined as Dyscalculia which is a term used to refer to learning disabilities that involve arithmetic comprehension or computation. This difficulty in mastering concepts or computations is usually associated with neurological dysfunction or brain damage and is classified as developmental (occurring before birth from genetic or congenital problems) or acquired (occurring after birth usually from a traumatic brain injury).
2)Mathematics learning disabilities do not often occur with clarity and simplicity. Rather, they can be combinations of difficulties which may include language processing problems, visual spatial confusion, memory and sequence difficulties, and/or unusually high anxiety. To be classified with dyscalculia, a child must have intellectual functioning that falls within or above the normal range and a significant discrepancy between his/her age and math skills (usually 2 years or more). Often children with dyscalculia show a spread of 20 points or more between their verbal and performance scores on WISC intelligence testing.
3) If i was a teacher in a general education classroom the information and strategies that would help best support a child with this disability would be my schools principal, my students IEP team, also the use of http://standards.nctm.org/ which is the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Also support from the parents help a great deal because they can get legal support as the parents for their children, even in class support depending on how serious their childs learning disablity is.
4) There are several resources that would help me as a teacher to serve this child ,for example: http://www.paulabliss.com/math.htm this page alone provides a teacher with about 20+ websites that could assist me with the service of a child with this issue. A couple of the websites that I looked at on this one site alone are : http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/math_skills/math-1.html#anchor1270907 ;which discusses characteristics of a student with this learning dissablities and different ways that you can understand how they learn, which would teach you how to accomidate them. Another one is: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/mathbasics.html, which also reviews the misunderstanding of a child who has math laearning disabilities and organizational skills. It also provides websites that have actitivies to stimulate their ways of learning.
Some accomodations and Modifications that teachers and parents of students with Dyscalculia, should consider are :
1. Encourage students to work extra hard to "visualize" mathematics problems. Draw them or have them draw a picture to help understand the problem, and make sure that they take the time to look at any visual information that is provided (picture, chart, graph, etc.)
2. Have the student read problems out loud and listen very carefully. This allows them to use their auditory skills (which may be strength).
3. Provide examples and try to relate problems to real-life situations.
4. Provide younger students with graph paper and encourage them to use it in order to keep the numbers in line.
5. Provide uncluttered worksheets so that the student is not overwhelmed by too much visual information (visual pollution). Especially on tests, allow scrap paper with lines and ample room for uncluttered computation.
6. Discalculia students must spend extra time memorizing mathematics facts. Repetition is very important. Use rhythm or music to help memorize.
7. Many students need one-on-one attention to fully grasp certain concepts. Have students work with a tutor, a parent, or a teacher after school hours in a one-on-one environment.
8. If possible, allow the student to take the exam on a one-to-one basis in the teacher's presence.
9. The student might like instant answers and a chance to do the problem over once s/he is wrong. Often their mistakes are the result of "seeing" the problem wrong.
10. In early stages, design the test problems "pure," testing only the required skills. In their early learning, they must be free of large numbers and unnecessary destructive calculations.
11. Allow more than the "common" time to complete problems and check to see that student is not panicking (tears in eyes, mind frozen).
12. Most importantly, be PATIENT! Never forget that the student WANTS to learn and retain. Realize that mathematics can be a traumatic experience and is highly emotional because of past failures. The slightest misunderstanding or break in logic can overwhelm the student and cause emotional distress. Pity will not help, but patience and individual attention will. It is typical for students to work with until they know the material well and then get every problem wrong on the test. Then 5 minutes later, they can perform the test with just the teacher, on the chalkboard, and many times get all problems correct. Remember that this is very frustrating for the teacher/parent as well as the student. Patience is essential.
13. Assign extra problems for practice and maybe a special TA (teaching assistant) or special education is assigned to assist the affected student.
14. When presenting new material, make sure the student with discalculia is able to write each step down and talk it through until they understand it well enough to teach it back to you.
15. Go over the upcoming lesson with so that the lecture is more of a review.
2 comments:
1) This disability is defined as Dyscalculia which is a term used to refer to learning disabilities that involve arithmetic comprehension or computation. This difficulty in mastering concepts or computations is usually associated with neurological dysfunction or brain damage and is classified as developmental (occurring before birth from genetic or congenital problems) or acquired (occurring after birth usually from a traumatic brain injury).
2)Mathematics learning disabilities do not often occur with clarity and simplicity. Rather, they can be combinations of difficulties which may include language processing problems, visual spatial confusion, memory and sequence difficulties, and/or unusually high anxiety. To be classified with dyscalculia, a child must have intellectual functioning that falls within or above the normal range and a significant discrepancy between his/her age and math skills (usually 2 years or more). Often children with dyscalculia show a spread of 20 points or more between their verbal and performance scores on WISC intelligence testing.
3) If i was a teacher in a general education classroom the information and strategies that would help best support a child with this disability would be my schools principal, my students IEP team, also the use of http://standards.nctm.org/ which is the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Also support from the parents help a great deal because they can get legal support as the parents for their children, even in class support depending on how serious their childs learning disablity is.
4) There are several resources that would help me as a teacher to serve this child ,for example: http://www.paulabliss.com/math.htm this page alone provides a teacher with about 20+ websites that could assist me with the service of a child with this issue. A couple of the websites that I looked at on this one site alone are :
http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/math_skills/math-1.html#anchor1270907 ;which discusses characteristics of a student with this learning dissablities and different ways that you can understand how they learn, which would teach you how to accomidate them.
Another one is:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/mathbasics.html, which also reviews the misunderstanding of a child who has math laearning disabilities and organizational skills. It also provides websites that have actitivies to stimulate their ways of learning.
Some accomodations and Modifications that teachers and parents of students with Dyscalculia, should consider are :
1. Encourage students to work extra hard to "visualize" mathematics problems. Draw them or have them draw a picture to help understand the problem, and make sure that they take the time to look at any visual information that is provided (picture, chart, graph, etc.)
2. Have the student read problems out loud and listen very carefully. This allows them to use their auditory skills (which may be strength).
3. Provide examples and try to relate problems to real-life situations.
4. Provide younger students with graph paper and encourage them to use it in order to keep the numbers in line.
5. Provide uncluttered worksheets so that the student is not overwhelmed by too much visual information (visual pollution). Especially on tests, allow scrap paper with lines and ample room for uncluttered computation.
6. Discalculia students must spend extra time memorizing mathematics facts. Repetition is very important. Use rhythm or music to help memorize.
7. Many students need one-on-one attention to fully grasp certain concepts. Have students work with a tutor, a parent, or a teacher after school hours in a one-on-one environment.
8. If possible, allow the student to take the exam on a one-to-one basis in the teacher's presence.
9. The student might like instant answers and a chance to do the problem over once s/he is wrong. Often their mistakes are the result of "seeing" the problem wrong.
10. In early stages, design the test problems "pure," testing only the required skills. In their early learning, they must be free of large numbers and unnecessary destructive calculations.
11. Allow more than the "common" time to complete problems and check to see that student is not panicking (tears in eyes, mind frozen).
12. Most importantly, be PATIENT! Never forget that the student WANTS to learn and retain. Realize that mathematics can be a traumatic experience and is highly emotional because of past failures. The slightest misunderstanding or break in logic can overwhelm the student and cause emotional distress. Pity will not help, but patience and individual attention will. It is typical for students to work with until they know the material well and then get every problem wrong on the test. Then 5 minutes later, they can perform the test with just the teacher, on the chalkboard, and many times get all problems correct. Remember that this is very frustrating for the teacher/parent as well as the student. Patience is essential.
13. Assign extra problems for practice and maybe a special TA (teaching assistant) or special education is assigned to assist the affected student.
14. When presenting new material, make sure the student with discalculia is able to write each step down and talk it through until they understand it well enough to teach it back to you.
15. Go over the upcoming lesson with so that the lecture is more of a review.
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