Math disability

[Sheila]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Has anyone tried any Linda-Mood Bell programs? V/V comes to mind since my son's math weakness involves a problem understanding the language aspects of math.</div></div>

Yes. Visualizing and Verbalizing was part of what gfg's private SLP used. Additionally, we purchased the home version and used it to supplement the private language therapy.

[Mrs Smith]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Sheila</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> <div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Has anyone tried any Linda-Mood Bell programs? V/V comes to mind since my son's math weakness involves a problem understanding the language aspects of math.</div></div>

Yes. Visualizing and Verbalizing was part of what gfg's private SLP used. Additionally, we purchased the home version and used it to supplement the private language therapy. </div></div>

How helpful do you think it was?

[Martie]

There are math equivalents of an SLP problem that presumably underwrites all language based subjects.

I think that the WIAT and the W-J tap some of them: there is a problem of transfer among concrete and abstract processes. If there additionally is a memory problem that make retrieval of previously learned material difficult, it's an uphill road and processing speed is often a factor. Word problems tap both types of disabilities...

I do not agree with Kathy on homework at home, because for certain kids, it is just too destructive of any sort of family sanity to be worth it. However, I DO agree that practice is necessary to learn math but for some, that must be done at school either in resource, or in after school tutoring.

Martie

[Kathy813]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Practice is the only way to learn math whether it is done at home <u>or during a resource period</u>. </div></div>

Martie,

My definition of homework is practice that is done after they leave my class. I don't particularly care where it is done. In fact, many of my students do it in the cafeteria during their lunch.

Some come to my room and eat their lunch with me while they do their homework because it is quieter in my room. These are honor's level students, though, who are self-directed. I would imagine middle school students who need more guidance to get it done.

~Kathy

[Martie]

Kathy,

I know that is your definition of homework, and I also know that you understand that some conscientious parents cannot get their gfgs to do homework at home.

The problem is, to me, that few other teachers seem to understand this. My homework days are far behind me, but as I watch the special education struggle continue in the public schools, it seems little progress has been made in supporting homework completion. Parents are still left to "wing it."

I hope you know that I agree with you on math instruction as impossible to conduct totally on classroom time, unless it is at a very basic level with students who need 1:1 to learn anything at all.

Best to you,

Martie

[svengandhi]

My PC daughter has a math disability caused by lead poisoning (at least according to my doctors; the doctors retained by the people I sued for it claimed that LP can't cause only math/memory issues, but I digress). Anyway, although my daughter has a very superior IQ overall, her VIQ is 42 points higher than her PIQ. She struggles with math issues. I had to hire a $100/hr tutor to get her past the Math A regents and she still only got a C+ for the year. I had to send her to summer school (private) for $1,000 so that math B was the only class she was taking and even with it being her only class, she still only got a 74 on the Regents and a C+ for the year. Now, she's in pre-calc with a C for the first quarter, even though she does all her HW and really tries. She struggled horribly with chemistry but is doing a little better with physics because there aren't the same huge chemical formulas.

Math is not her friend and it is due to memory issues. She can't summon the numbers back. It took her until 5th grade to tell time, she still refuses to use an analog clock of any sort, only digital, gets confused if I use expressions like "a quarter of" or "20 past" the hour, she still counts on her fingers and does not really have complete mastery of her times tables.

My dyslexic son on the other hand reverses his numbers but has all of his concepts down pat. He is the highest math group at this new LD school and got an 85 the first quarter. He does not have a math LD separate from his dyslexia.

I do agree with Kathy that lots of practice is necessary for success. I have also seen that it is far easier to get gfg to do math HW and study than it is to get PC daughter to do hers. And I think the major difference is that gfg is truly math gifted and enjoys it whereas for PC daughter it is sheer unmitigated torture. Unfortunately, though, it is those kids for whom math is torture who need to do the studying and who it is tough to get to do it.

Sadly, I struggle over this with my daughter, who has not a gfg trait in her persona. Since I struggle over writing with gfg (he is reading adult books but won't write a simple paragraph), I know what it's like to try to get HW done with a gfg, even though it's not math. My only recourse is the H threat - he's still bigger than gfg even though I'm not. It's not a method I recommend.