For many dyslexic students, math reasoning is quite strong and may be above average, but in routine classroom tasks, one may never see it because instructions are misread, working memory becomes overloaded.
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Money Skills and Dyslexia [Premium]
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Helping Your Dyslexic Student with Math: Inchworms and Grasshopper [Premium]
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Clear Language and Manipulatives Teaching Multiplication and Division [Premium]
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Online Visual Math Curriculum [Premium]
There are several potential advantages to using a visual online math curriculum: • an online program is infinitely patient • programs can adapt to users – not too hard or easy – just right • hints and encouragement when needed • comprehensive curriculum with some periodic review • colors and animation to illustrate concepts • options to repeat information or provide additional explanation Recently, I heard about KooBits.com. They say two thirds of the school children in Singapore are using KooBits and Singapore is recognized as an international leader in educational assessments (as a comparison whereas Singapore comes out as #1, US students usually score around #30). Singapore math programs introduce new math concepts using the Concrete-Pictoral-Abstract practice, an approach that works well for dyslexic […]
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The Problem of Place Value [Premium]
Understanding place value is critical for math, but dyslexic students may struggle due to errors in sequencing, directionality, and substitution. This blog post explores common challenges dyslexic learners face with place value, strategies like using base ten blocks and graph paper to help, and why reviewing place value remains essential even for older students.
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Calculator Use: Accommodation or No? [Premium]
A teacher writes, “I have a new student who transferred from a public charter school. She has an IEP accommodation for a calculator use for anything involving math calculations. But I’m wondering whether providing a calculator is changing standards? Is she learning how to use a calculator rather than learning how to do math? Where do we draw the line?” I’m glad you asked this question. I think more teacher and parents ask themselves this question than you may realize. Dyscalculia is one of the least recognized “specific learning disabilities.” In the past ten years, there’s been a revolution in our understanding of the scientific basis of dyscalculia, but in day-to-day practice, there’s remarkably little in the way of practical guidance for both teachers and […]
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Math Difficulties Common with Dyslexia
Although the pace of research into dyslexia beyond reading proceeds very slowly, there is some welcome recent research into some of the math challenges that are associated with dyslexia from the University of California. Some of the key findings of the study: – development of a new test – a Mathematical Cognition Battery – 66% or 2/3 of dyslexic students had math difficulties – even those dyslexic students who were identified as having “no challenges in mathematics” , had weaker math approximation abilities than the typically developing group – the battery assessed students on 4 mathematical areas: number processing, arithmetical procedures, arithmetic fact retrieval, and geometrical abilities – dyslexic students who scored poorly on number processing (13%) , tended to score poorly on other […]
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The Challenge of Word Problems [Premium]
Just as challenging text or long technical words can be difficult to decode without explicit instruction, so word problems in math can cause students to struggle without explicit instruction and highlight to the patterns that exist between problems. Many dyslexic students will struggle as they progress through higher levels of math without being able to grasp the big picture of what they are learning and trying to master. Teaching the different categories of word problems they are likely to encounter brings simplification and order to an otherwise chaotic accumulation of math problems.
One helpful free public resource for helping students with math is the math guide from the IES or Institute for Education Sciences here. Here are examples of how change […]
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Math and Sciences: Symbols and Dyslexia [Premium]
It’s important to be aware that although many dyslexics have natural strengths in math reasoning and scientific thinking, these strengths may not be evident during K-12 education because of challenges with symbol confusion and polysemous or multiple meaning words in math and science. As a result, even students with high potential in science and math may find themselves underperforming in these subjects. Few specialty teachers receive training in ways to support their dyslexic students, so students are left on their own to figure out lessons and homework. THE PROBLEM WITH SYMBOLS Symbols can be a great challenge to dyslexic students because of a common weakness in snapshot picture or eidetic memory. The same difficulty that makes it so hard to take a picture of spelling […]
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What Can Help with Working Memory Limitations?
Q: My 9 year old son is having trouble making progress in reading, writing, and Math because of working memory. What can help? Working memory is a type of memory that allows us to temporarily hold information ‘in mind’ to be used for other cognitive tasks. Some people refer to it as a ‘sticky note’ like remember a phone number when taking a message or directions when someone tells you where you need to go.
WORKING MEMORY LIMITATIONS AFFECT READING, WRITING, AND MATH Working memory limitations can affect reading, writing, math, and really all types of learning because if too much information is presented at once, students can lose their place, forget what’s been said, and experience what experts call “cognitive overload”. […]
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Teaching Geometry to Dyslexic Students [Premium]
“Henry Winkler… got his diploma in the mail only after taking the same geometry class eight times in a row over the course of four years, during the summers and regular school semesters, and finally passing with a D-.” — Alia Wong, “The MisEducation of the Fonz”, Atlantic Monthly It’s surprisingly hard to find research publications on teaching geometry to dyslexic students. One reason, suggested by Kay and Yeo in their book Dyslexia and Maths, is that numerical difficulties are more common among dyslexic students than geometric ones. They cite one study of 92 students followed over four years in which 50% failed to meet standards in Number Work, compared to 27% who missed for “Measure, Shape and Space.” That being said, because geometry is […]
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