[senco-forum] Re: dyscalculia or dyslexia

Sally, I found your explanation very interesting.  The reason I thought she 
might have dyscalculia was because I used the Dyscalculia Screener from 
NFER.  I know that it is not just the words in maths which is an issue. 
When she is adding two numbers she uses fingers but if it is more than 10 
then she will use any objects within sight.  I feel very sorry for her as 
the school is now talking about getting her statemented and moving her into 
our MLD unit or Special Needs class.  I have grave reservations about this 
as she appears to me to be better suited to mainstream with help.  In terms 
of reading and spelling I discovered that she had no phonic skills at all at 
Christmas and now she is making good progress with decoding and spelling.  I 
believe with good teaching she could possibly gain maths skills too.

D
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <middleroom at blueyonder.co.uk>
To: "dolina.patterson" <dolina.patterson at btinternet.com>
Cc: <senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk>
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 8:27 PM
Subject: Re: [senco-forum] Re: dyscalculia

>
> We mustn't forget that 'a difficulty with maths' need not necessarily mean
> dyscalculia.
>
> It is very common for dyslexia to cause a difficulty with maths due to the
> language of maths; teaching approach; impact of initial
> confusion/anxiety/failure creating further difficculties etc.
>
> I would advise the maths teacher to consider and investigate this pupil's
> grasp and confidence with the language of maths ...
>
> 'Multiply, x, lots of, times' can be very confusing for a dyslexic
> struggling with terminology and memory storage/recall. We have right
> angles ... where are the left angles or wrong angles? We write '37' in a
> manner that matches the way we say the word ... so why isn't '17' written
> '71'? Multiplication tables depend heavily on audio memory and can cause
> great difficulties for dylexic students. Maths is full of squiggles such
> as % which then have to be related to an appropriate word, concept and
> understanding.
>
> The 'numeracy hour' teaching approach is not good for those with memory
> and language processing weaknesses ... they live in overload and rarely
> get the chance to explore and consolidate topics at the pace they need
> before new approaches or topics bombard them.
>
> The impact of failure in maths is huge. It can create enormous barriers to
> the ability to calmly examine, decode and interpret numerical tasks;
> reduces experience and confidence; leads to maths anxiety that turns the
> brain into jelly.
>
> I also, personally, think that we do not do enough to really instill an
> understanding of units. If you calculated the length of a table and the
> answer came out as 2 miles, you would know immediately that they was a
> mistake somewhere. Do children (or adults) have the depth of knowledge
> concerning litres and grams etc ... they might know 2litres is a bottle of
> coke, but do they know the weight of 10grams, or volume of a bath?
>
> The meaning of the = sign is also one I have found struggling dyslexic
> pupils often misunderstand. They equate it to mean 'and then, at the end
> of the story, we get to an answer'. This understanding creates havoc when
> they try to understand algebra, whereas the meaning of = as 'the same as'
> relieves their confusion. This demonstrates just one example of how the
> difficult decoding symbolic language can lead to a fixed misunderstanding
> that a maths teacher may not be aware of.
>
> Often, specialist teachers are not aware of 'the simple difficulties'
> being faced by students. Some never had any difficulties themselves when
> learning maths and therefore do not recognise subtle confusions that might
> be occurring. Helping the maths teacher to recognise maths from the
> dyslexic's perspective can help them design teaching experiences that
> access learning and discovery rather than confusion and anxiety.
>
> Interestingly, countries in which mothers play numeracy games with their
> children have higher numeracy levels than those that play literacy games.
> In the courses for parents of dyslexic children I am running throughout
> Cornwall at the moment, we are giving out sets of dice including
> multisided ones (from Warhammer game shops) and accompanying dice games to
> play.
>
> The difference the parents are finding between the child tackiling maths
> homework versus playing a dice game that explores similar topics,
> demonstrates a difference in a learning approach ... the sooner we get
> dartboard games as a national sport, the better!!
>
> 'Dyscalculia' (as opposed to dyslexia causing a difficulty with school
> maths) is relatively rare. If I told you that chair plus table equals
> ceiling, and then asked you what ceiling take away table was, you would
> probably tell me 'chair'. You have worked this out through logic, not by
> understanding the qualities of 'chair' 'table' or 'ceiling' that qualified
> the equation. Similarly, dyscalculics can learn some maths through rote
> learning, but not understand underlying dimensions of number. They do not
> identify that '16' is made up of 4x4; 20-4; 10+6 etc. As a result, the
> approaches used to teach maths to someone with dyscalculia are very
> different to those who are dyslexic.
>
> Finally, many dyslexics are inherently good at maths. I read somewhere
> that 75% of the dyslexic population are naturally good at maths compared
> with 25% of the non-dylsexic population. However, whilst the dyslexic
> might be able to quickly produce a correct answer, they often are unable
> to break their calculating processes down into identifiable steps ... not
> an approach we encourage in school. By GCSE, the above statistics are not
> in evidence, supporting the suggestion that the way we teach maths in
> schools positively disadvantages the dyslexic learner.
>
> Best wishes,
> Sally (Plymouth-soon-to-be-St-Austell)
>
>> Thanks all for suggestions.  I will follow them up.  I just wish I could
>> work with her myself as she is keen to improve and has great parental
>> support, not like a few others I have to teach who couldn't care less and
>> make everyone's life misery.  Sorry, had to get that off my chest.
>>
>> Dolina
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> 