Dyscalculia

As I write this post, the wind and snow are swirling around the house, education in Ontario is in a state of unrest, Newfoundland/Labrador has been pounded by a storm of horrific magnitude, Canada is still negotiating with Iran, and Harry and Meghan have been 'unroyaled' or is it 'deroyaled'?  Those are made-up words for that news story that keeps our minds off the others.

So how are you doing?  Ready to step back into the world of Fact Sheets about different ways of learning and thinking?  I'm going to tackle two this week (and the good thing about online publishing is that it allows me to go back and change this!)

So here's the first one (I'm being pedantic by adding the Fact Sheets from understood.org as they appeared in the original email.  The six Fact sheets are: Dyslexia (last post); ADHD; Dyscalculia; Slow Processing Speed; Sensory Processing; and DCD.  I've linked all six in case you want to get ahead of me!

ADHD

I tackled this topic in several posts last year (!) so I won't spend any more time on it.  My biggest concern for children is summed up in the statement above: ADHD isn't caused by laziness or lack of discipline.  Too many children have been incorrectly and unfairly judged as lazy or undisciplined.  The other concern falls under the Ways to help  category - finding strategies for coping with anxiety.

Dyscalculia

Up to 7% of elementary school students have dyscalculia. Research suggests it's as common as dyslexia -- a reading disorder -- but not as well understood. In fact, kids and parents sometimes call it “math dyslexia,” but this can be confusing because dyscalculia is a completely different condition. Kids with dyscalculia may count on their fingers long after other children have stopped doing so.  

How Can I Help My Child?

The following suggestions are from the website linked above.  I've modified some of the ideas based on my experience.

   

Here are some things you can try to help your child better learn and understand math and lower her anxiety:

• Let her use her fingers and paper when she counts. My experience with students I suspect have dyscalculia is that their fingers move far faster than I can imagine. The problem with using fingers is that it eventually will not be as helpful when we're talking more difficult math problems.
• Make sure she has the right tools, like an easy-to-use calculator and plenty of erasers. It is really important to get the teacher's buy-in for this.  It's also why it's important to have testing done to ensure that this is the appropriate diagnosis.  And once you have that, you can have an IEP that will - should - allow these accommodations. I'd add that having a multiplication chart close by is a real asset as well.  Have it laminated or put into a plastic sleeve and taped to your child's desk.  
• Use graph paper. It helps keep columns and numbers straight and neat. This is really important and the bigger the grid the better because lots of children don't print small!  This link is to 1/2 inch grid. This is 1 cm grid paper, perhaps more useful.
• Use rhythm and music to teach math facts and steps. I've worked with a student who had no problems with the algorithms (knowing how to add, multiply etc.) but could not remember the math facts.  In fact, I started learning about dyscalculia after entering a search quest for: "Can't remember number facts"  and up popped understood.org with information about dyscalculia.  
• Get an experienced math tutor to help. I'm here!!
• Draw pictures of math word problems. This is a really important strategy and it reminds me that I should do a post about the different problem solving strategies!
• Schedule computer time to play math games. How's this - play x number of minutes on a math game/app to earn y number of minutes of another online game.  
• Praise her hard work, not the outcome. 
• Talk with her about her learning disability.
• Teach her ways to manage anxiety.

Some Math Game Apps

1. Quick Math Jr is one of the best apps I've seen for younger kids (and kids struggling and needing confidence.)  There is a free version; I purchased the upgrade.  My students are most eager to play this game.  Little side story - a few years ago when travelling in Italy, John and I stepped outside our comfort zone and as part of a package to get to know more about Italy, we had dinner with a family in Florence.  The two young daughters did not have much English but I gave them my iPad and showed them the game.  Within minutes they were playing away.  Here's a link to a review.
   
2. The big brother of Quick Math Jr is Quick Math.  It's a drill app for all four operations.  If your child is competitive this is a good game because it times how quickly you get through each set and then posts the score.  It is leveled, so you can choose both the operation (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) as well as Beginner and up.  I also like the fact that to answer the problems you have to 'write' with your finger directly on the screen so it encourages proper number formation.  Unfortunately I cannot find the app on Google Play, only iOS.  Beware - there are apps on Google Play called Quick Math but they are not from Shiny Things (the maker of Quick Math Jr and Quick Math).  
   
   
   
3. Finally, there are so many apps out there.  Check out this page for reviews of Math apps on both iOS and Google Play.  I have downloaded only the Quick Math so far but intend to add more using these recommendations.  I'll keep you posted. Do not be put off by the reference to 4th Grade.  

Just before we get to the January cartoons, here's a link from ADDitude magazine about Dyscalulia in Adults because it's not just for kids!

Enjoy!

Dyslexia Fact Sheet

It's been a challenging start to a new decade but this is a Blog about keeping things positive and looking for ways to make things better for all our children.  Let's start the year with some fact sheets from understood.org that have basic information about various learning and thinking differences.  Share these posters with teachers, family members, and friends.  

I was going to include all six fact sheets in one post but realized that that would be too overwhelming for all of us (writer and reader!).  So let's do just one each week.  

I've included the link to the PDF for the fact sheet in the title of the section. Sidebar - I love it when I find a typo in these professionally produced illustrations.  Can you spot the typo in this first one?  (Corrine - you'll find it right away).

DYSLEXIA

Famous People with Dyslexia

1. Jennifer Aniston - Aniston didn’t know she was dyslexic until she was in her 20s. She says finding out explained why it was so hard to read back in school and why she chose the role of class clown over teacher’s pet. The diagnosis answered a lot of questions. "I felt like all my childhood trauma-dies, tragedies, dramas, were explained."
2. Steven Spielberg - The movie mogul has had his own close encounter with dyslexia, though he didn’t know until he was 60 that he had the disorder. Bullied as a kid, he struggled through school and dropped out of college in 1968. Since then, the famed filmmaker has fought back using the big screen. The Goonies, a cult classic he co-wrote and produced, reflects Spielberg’s teen years as a self-proclaimed “nerd” and “outsider.”
3. Whoopi Goldberg - class bullies called her “stupid.” The multi-talented Goldberg didn’t even find out she had dyslexia until well after she dropped out of school. 
4. Henry Winkler - Best known as “The Fonz” on Happy Days, this actor-turned-author was always one to improvise on the set. Winkler confesses his trouble reading was a big reason for going off-script. He says dyslexia also taught him kindness. You can see that when he talks about Hank Zipzer, “world’s greatest underachiever” and the main character in the children’s books he’s written about dyslexia.
5. Richard Branson - The head of his high school predicted this British entrepreneur would end up in prison or become a millionaire. Try billionaire, with a “b,” many times over. Branson says dyslexia and what he describes as “a different way of thinking” have helped him succeed. Branson stars in a 2012 movie called The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia. 
   
6. Jay Leno - The comedian and former host of The Tonight Show says there wasn’t really a name for dyslexia when he was in high school -- everyone just told him to smarten up. It all turned around when a creative writing teacher suggested he put some of the funny stories he was always telling on paper. “That was the first time in my life I really focused on something.”
7. Danny Glover  didn’t get the acting bug until his late 20s, and he didn’t know he was dyslexic until he was 30. Not having a diagnosis back then he felt “unworthy to learn.” But Glover found an escape in acting, which, he says, “gave me a way of expressing some of that inner life that was raging inside of me.”
8. Kiera Knightley - Dyslexia was both the carrot and the stick for this British-born Academy Award nominee. Getting good grades earned her time on stage, so she was eager to please. Behind the scenes, though, some classmates were just as eager to tease. “It’s amazing what a child calling you stupid would do to make you read pretty quickly,” Knightley recalls. She says dyslexia has made her the actress she is today.

Dyslexia was not well understood until the late 20th century. Even today it can be hard for doctors to diagnose. Given what we know now, many famous people may have had dyslexia, including Leonardo da Vinci, Saint Teresa, Napoleon, Winston Churchill, Carl Jung, Albert Einstein, and Thomas Edison.

As I read the mini-bios of the eight personalities I was saddened by the similarity of their stories - feeling less than positive about themselves, being bullied, not knowing about dyslexia until later in life, and the feeling of relief once they did know.  It's so important to follow up on your instincts if you suspect a child you know and love might be having trouble because of this learning difference.  

 

Finally, sometimes identifying with a character in a book can be helpful.  Check out these books that feature characters with dyslexia or ADHD.

Understood.org has over 525 links to searches about dyslexia on its website.  If you're having trouble filtering where to start, what to read, send me an email (gerriestorr@rogers.com) and I'll try to help.  

And really finally - this cartoon doesn't get it; dyslexia is not about reading words backwards.