The "why" to our math problem

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Does visual or kinesthetic arithmetic work bester? I learned times tables from making grids of dirt piles. They stuck because I made them myself.

In dyscalculia it is typical for people with good memory etc. to be able to learn something by heart and then it is forgotten afterwards. I got through university (Biology masters and Geography) by learning my math by heart. A few weeks after, I had no Idea how to do the tests. I still have trouble making simple percentage calculations and have to work it out every time (like trying with 100 and 25 and then fiddeling around with the calculation until it is right and then fill in with the numbers that I am working on - it takes ages). Having difficulties with left and right is typical for dyscalculia.

People with dyscalculia can have extreme troubles with one kind of math and be really good at other kinds of math, I think that it is nessessary to look at the comorbid things as well to make a diagnosis (apparently som of these, like difficulties with recognizing faces can be characteristic of AS as well)

Last time I looked at the dyscalculia resources there was not really any good way of teaching children with dyscalculia (there are tons of methods for people with dyslexia, they can often be helped).

Being good at memorizing things can help and there are lots of workarounds to dyscalculia.

But - with children with AS it is worth considering if it is the way of learning that is different or if it is really dyscalculia.

helles,

Do you know if this trend for memorizing something and then forgetting it expands past math facts for dyscalculia? It's interesting because I find I cannot remember "details" very well. For many tests I have to seriously cram shortly before the test just to memorize things, and then awhile after the only thing left is general impressions, but no specific facts. I had to do this for my psych GRE to remember which researchers were involved in which kind of research and other similar facts. I scored 98% on the test, but I would say within a week, all the information I learned for the test was lost.

Just curious -- did any of the kids who had trouble memorizing math facts have trouble learning sight words? We found that the traditional method of drilling sight words with flash cards didn't work at all for DS7 -- he could spend 10 minutes with DH going over 5-10 words, and at the end still not able to get them right, or completely forgetting by the next day. But when we tried the BoB books, where the sight words are in context, he learned them a lot quicker.

We haven't actually tried to drill math facts yet. He does very well with math concepts (the book his public school used does a lot of word and picture problems), but I just have a hunch that flashcards or a timed math drill would be a disaster.

Nope, not in our case - DS had no trouble with reading, really. After a short hiccup in grades K-1 where he was in the "bottom group" (which I think had more to do with difficulty expressing himself and not with reading) DS moved into the top reading group and has stayed there ever since.

Since flash cards were such a miserable failure for me, I admit we never did them with DS, although the school did. Here are all the things we tried: books (You Can Count On Monsters - which I do think helped a little - and Times Tables The Fun Way - a cartoon and pun version that didn't help at all) using coins (showing multiplication as stacks of pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, etc. - he learned his 5s and 10s but not the rest) as I said, School House Rock and writing down the lyrics to each song, worksheets, the school used "math facts triangles" a kind of flashcard, and finally the times tables worksheets.

There is an article here about non-sequential learners and math facts that I think is very interesting, and it bears out the "times tables" version we've been using - see if it makes sense for those of you who are struggling: http://www.education.com/reference/arti ... thematics/

For me, it is the opposite. I am an extreme sequential learner. I have major problems as well especially when steps are left out and are assumed and implied.

I think the two are probably not as far separated as one might think. DS has the same trouble with implied steps, but the most likely difference between you and him is that he also sometimes "skips" steps if he doesn't have some kind of visual prompt.

My son--yes.

My daughter--no.

We had to work very hard to get my son reading, but I never did anything at all with my daughter except read to her and teach her that letters have sounds. When it came to sight words, for some reason she had a remarkably easy time.

That's interesting. I struggle to do basic math, but when I got to Algebra, It was a piece of cake. I even did ok at basic calculus. I'm also not very good a using manual clocks; it takes me a little longer than normal.

I'm ok at memorising numbers though. License plates, for example.

zette-- my son is one of those who just reads without instruction (although he can't spell very well) and it seems like he remembers absolutely everything at least from the age of 3... math though is different...it is absolutely puzzling why someone with such a good memory could struggle with math facts.... i was told that a different part of the brain stores things like math facts and face recognition (which we also have trouble with when we see familiar people in a different place than usual) than language and reading capabilities but i have no idea if this is true or not...

flashcards for math and spelling have been a disaster for us too... he is better off with spelling if I make a long sentence out of all the words that have the -ight ending for example, rather than individual flash cards... and for math facts, the reflex online has been the only thing to work, but not sure if it is going to stick long term yet... he is the type who likes to make movies/ memorize movies in his head, so i almost wonder if something flat and static like a flashcard is of no interest to him

he also likes the silly Life of Fred books for math, but they are more for fun because we couldn't possibly read them fast enough to keep up with the math in school but they do reinforce what he is learning and make him more interested in math

My son has problems with facial recognition, too. He recognizes people by their hair, their posture, the way they walk, and their voice. But he has difficulty with all of those if the person is out of context.

OMG yes, my son could just not get sight works with flash cards. He needed the words in context with cues - (pictures). He learned to read later than most, but he reads at grade level now (if not a little higher) with very good comprehension (he is a slower reader - so am I, but we remember what we read). DS has a great memory - remembers better than anyone I know, but trying to learn sight words by flash cards was a disaster.