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I had exactly the same confusion with my daughter. She memorized multiplication tables in Montessori kindergarten, but she had no idea what the numbers meant. She knew instantly that 8X8=64 but in third grade if I asked her how many squares were on the chessboard then she would count them one by one. She hated word problems because she couldn't see any connection between words and numbers. Anyway, the problem lasted only a couple of years (maybe 3rd and part of 4th grade) and now she's a math whiz.

I'm sorry that I don't have any useful advice except that other AS kids have the same problem and eventually your daughter will "get it".

no kidding - I still can't figure out how she thought any kid would be able to draw those.

Exactly! When he was in third grade I had to go to an IEP meeting to declare I was not doing anymore third grade projects. This was after I did a mosaic of a turtle and made a simple machine. I'm happy to report I received an A on both.

Having a set homework routine can be very helpful, I think, in avoiding arguments. For example, with my older son with classic autism, he must start his homework fifteen minutes after he gets home from school and no computer games until it is done. Some younger kids work for candy.

I do a whole lot of tutoring, so I can definitely relate.

I don't really do my son's homework for him (with the exception of a couple of posters that hew could not have made himself). However, we have tons of educational videos, books, computer software, etc. For him to be able to do the homework on his own, he needs a lot of at-home tutoring--otherwise he doesn't have the concepts down well enough to do it.

I have also heard of deliberately scheduling a library or study hall class, choosing easier classes with less homework, and having a special ed teacher or teacher's aid pull the student out of class for extra one-on-one tutoring. (At one point, they were pulling my son out of class to do math flashcards with him, for instance.) This would probably need to be in his IEP--so many hours per week of tutoring in each subject that is giving you a headache.

http://youtu.be/GXkAIUuAYrw

Also, see the link about hyperlexia from my free YouTube Reading Channel. Reading issues, particularly hyperlexia, are often present in kids with autism.

This is a reading comprehension issue, or perhaps she is drawing on a past experience where she was confused by a trick question. There was a biology instructor at my college who was infamous for semantic based trick questions and this would drive most of his students insane, and rightfully so because then the test became one of logical comprehension and not biology. But at the 3rd grade level she should be able to trust the questions.

I think I would have the teacher talk to her and reassure her the questions will always be very straight forward and if she gets one wrong, she can talk to the teacher and if she got it wrong because she mis-read it then she should be allowed to re-do it.

You know, there are some math word problems workbooks and computer programs out there for kids. Maybe some practice and individual attention at hom home would help? Or maybe if she is receiving special ed assistance, they can pull her out of class to work on this.

I have a word problems workbook that I've done with my 7-year-old. It seems like a lot of the questions are very similar. If he learns to underline the important numbers and terms like "more," "less," and "difference" and actually write out the equation rather than trying to do it in his head, it helps.

For those wanting some completely free academic resources, mostly geared towards the elementary school level, you might check out my channels. (See below). Also, the links page of my website, www.freevideosforautistickids.com, has links to free ebooks and math games for elementary school.

The playlists on my channels are meant for the kids to use themselves. The "favorites" sections are for parents and educators.

Also check out the "friends" and "subscriptions" sections on my YouTube channels for other helpful channels, some of which are geared towards older kids or adults.

Another free thing to do for reading comprehension and speech is to always use the closed captioning function on your TV and the subtitles function when you play DVDs.

The problem is nothing is straight forward for her-she almost always has trouble understanding the question. And it doesn't help that they word them and make them confusing.

Like this week: Last year she was taught place value: 2,942 - 2 thousands 9 hundreds 4 tens 2 ones
Well now this week they are trying to teach "borrowing" by asking them to do the place values and have more than ten ones. This has her SO upset!! ! So now they want 47 to be 3 tens and 17 ones and she is in tears explaining that NO!! !! It is supposed to be 4 tens and 7 ones how she has always been taught. This is her inflexibility that gets in the way, but it is always something.

And when she gets all of them wrong they don't explain it-they send it home to be redone while I suffer the meltdown.

I really feel for your daughter - we've been there and are still there! I think kids on the spectrum can't handle the multiple different ways to do problems. I, as her parent, can see the value in maybe learning more than one way, but for her to learn? She absolutely needs the the most basic explanation - and it needs to be consistently taught! We just finished (homeschool) teaching long division with the most basic algorithm...after I had to wade through the 4 different methods that were illustrated...

I found this great article a few years ago (please excuse all the ads in between - the original article was taken off the paper's server):

ETA: Rats! Can't post it yet...you can do an internet search on the article from a November 9, 2009 issue of a Philadelphia newspaper. It's entitled: " The "Reform Math" Problem: The Fad For a Fuzzy Approach to Teaching Arithmetic Is Especially Bad for Autistic Children" by Katherine Beals.

And to the OP (kevsmom), I agree with others about the possibility of having your son try to do his homework at school (resource period?) or to see if it can be modified or possibly even eliminated with his IEP. My DD is the same way - school work is done doing "school hours" and home "is not the place" for homework This year we got around it by my teaching her at home, so we just do extra practice during our time on the subject. But when she went to our local school, the deal was her work needed to be done within 40 minutes - that's all I could get out of her, but she was very efficient (mainly because she didn't want to do it all for the rest of the week!). Maybe you could get 30 solid minutes of work from him with the help of a timer? Tell the teachers/SPED that's what you are working on for now at home? You need a break too!

Does she realize that even though they are not literally the same numbers, they represent the same quantities?

Yes, I think so, but she is very rigid in her thinking. She is a rote learner. She can't change gears in her head-which is exactly what they are trying to get her to do-to realize there are many ways to express the same number. However, she doesn't CARE if there are many ways and she doesn't UNDERSTAND why anyone would care there are many ways. She needs someone to explain WHY there needs to be multiple ways to express it.

Yesterday she came home with a folder full of 50's, 60's and lower math paper grades. She was SO upset. Math has always been her strong subject (last year she made all A's) and now she is failing that. She is so upset she is shutting down. From what she says, this new math teacher's methods are by intimidation and Grace is shutting down even before she attempts the papers. Of the papers they sent home-I KNOW she knows the answers but filled out every single one of them wrong.

We are in a private school with no supports. The reason we are here is because the smaller class size is wonderful for my daughter's anxiety. But she is currently failing 3rd grade. And I am paying large sums of $$ for her to fail.

I don't know what to do to figure out what she needs to understand the problems. If you give her a sheet of math problems she can do them 100% all day. But when you mix things up or put them into word problems-she cannot do it.

I'm skeptical that she truly understand they represent the same quantity. If she does, she might cling to the same method not because she really wants to, but because she will become disoriented otherwise, and this might make her anxious. She probably organizes information in her head more similar to someone with NVLD than most people.

Here is what I would do if I could tutor her. I would first make sure she realized the different numbers represent the same quantity and I would have her demonstrate this to me. I would give her as much time to demonstrate it as needed so she doesn't feel pressured or freeze up.

I would then have her show me the way she likes to work the problems, step by step, as if she were teaching me, and we would write down the steps. This sheet is going to be her safety net so she can always return to the old way and get her bearings again if she needs to.

Then I would teach her the new way, step by step, very slowly, and I would write down the steps. I would have her demonstrate she knows how to work the problems the new way to be sure she understood, and then we would look at the papers and compare the two ways so she can map the old way to the new way and the new way to the old way.

It's really important to give children with learning differences time to absorb the information, and process it. A lot of people who try to help take silence or slowness as a sign that the child doesn't know how to do the problem and step in and help the child along while the child is in the process of parsing the information, effectively inhibiting their learning process and getting them in the habit of freezing up when people try to help. Why start your learning process if people are just going to interrupt you and you don't learn one way or the other?
So they sit there and veg out and get upset when they are forced to learn new methods because they just can't learn it the way others do....but they can learn it.

I think that this is excellent advice, Chronos.

I know I'm late getting in on this discussion, but we do have it in (both) our son's IEP that we can modify homework any way we see fit. Even if that means they take extra days to do it. We NEVER do homework on a Friday. That is their "chill out from a long week time" It really isn't fair when they are at school all day, and then they go over to the autism program at a local university and then they may have OT etc. etc. Some days they don't physcially have the time to do it, (or the emotional control at that point!). They can NOT be punished for not doing homework. And seriously, most of the homework is really stupid anyway, if they are making good grades at school and can demonstrate in the classroom that they know the material, why bother with homework! And I am NOT going to discuss word problems! they are the WORST!

Thank you, this is excellent advice. Now for the problem: She becomes upset during the process of me trying to explain the differences/similarities. She gets confused (I guess) and shuts down. I need to find a way to make it fun.

Just as a side note, at school they have been modifying everything this past week. When my daughter misses all the questions on a test/paper, they take her aside and verbally explain the problems and have her verbally tell them how to get the answer and the answer. They are giving her credit for these verbal answers. They explained to me that they think she doesn't understand the questions and therefore, puts down the wrong answers. They do think this is some sort of verbal/visual processing issue and I am happy they are trying to get around it but worry about long term consequences for their work around.

I *know* my daughter doesn't understand the questions because of a language processing issue. I would love it if they would do this, if only so they could have some insight into how she learns / processes things. In fact, I'm going to see if this can be included in my daugher's modifications. I try my best to explain how to do things, but I'm going to look at the other suggestions as well.

I wouldn't worry much about the long term consequences. Look at it as "direct instruction" according to her learning style and abilities. The more she can learn, in whatever way works, the better she'll be at learning the other things and the other ways.

J.