New Finding about the math gap and Girls

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I read a book called "Asperger Syndrome and Adolescent Girls." a doctor, a lady, had this to say:

"Why is it when girls who have math difficulties and have Asperger Syndrome do they not get help?" "Is it because it's asumed that girls don't do well in math?"

Oddly when boys have Asperger Syndrome, they have difficulty in math.

I was surprised too.

As a teacher, I can tell you I was taught that the main reason for the math gap between boys and girls, has nothing to do with girls being less able. It does, however, have everything to do with the way math is taught.

And there are some concepts that I was taught most every year from 5th grade-twelfth that i never comprehended until I was taught how to teach them in a way completely different from how I was taught them.

And it only took a few minutes to reach that understanding. years of frustration could have been avoided if my 5th grade teacher had taken two minutes to explain things in a different way

Oh boy, can I relate.
E has a math LD. She is getting 1:1 support in 5th grade, but I had to push for it. It was so obvious to ME - but yea - she was push around prior to 4th grade and I couldn't understand why they didn't see it. She has trouble with lapse time as well, and we have a goal in place for that too.

For anyone else out there with a daughter in 5th and up - I just purchased "Math Doesn't Suck" by Danica McGeller (sp) she played "Winnie Cooper" on the Wonder Years, and is a math education for girls advocate. It was written specifically for middle school girls, and it's a great book - even for me
It covers my nemesis in detail - fractions

i always struggled with math. still do.................my duaghter does as well. this year, they moved her to a lower math group which moves a little slower, and that seems to making a little bit of difference

seconding triangle trees. math made no sense to me at all for years. when i studied methods for teaching math in a class that taught many different methods and techniques, things clicked that had never before. it's so sad that it's been a matter of teaching style all along.

my daughter, who is also aspie, had absolutely no problem with geometry in high school, thought it was a piece of cake. i almost failed it, because it was taught as memorizing a series of proofs. once i was taught how to do the actual math part of it and ignore the verbal proofs method, it was so incredibly easy. she had trouble with pre-calc and calc, because of the way they were taught - pretty much rote.

something i seem to remember reading - i was thinking of relocating my family to ireland about 15 years ago and was doing reading on their educational system. i kept running into statements about girls being so much better than boys at math.... so, is it wired, cultural, or teaching methods, or some combination of?

or perhaps, one size does not fit all in more than just that?

math was the only thing in school I could understand for a long time. Everyone just told me I was a boy so I was good at math. I never really paid attention to the way the teachers taught it though.

In my school district they did try to teach math in those ways that are supposed to appeal to girls. I do better with the old textbook method. The best way I ever learned math was being sent off by myself to study a math text.

It's interesting to know that boys have just as much trouble though.

I learned in high school (what I had suspected prior) that my success or failure in math had everything to do with how it was taught. I've had a weakness in numbers forever (counting big numbers, $$ in my head). But once we got into Algebra, I saw exactly how language changed everything. One teacher made everything clear as a bell, he used joke euphemisms for algebraic terms and formulae. We got it. I changed schools and immediately fell behind because the teacher there was rigid, intolerant and wouldn't change his way of explaining things. In fact, he was defensive if you didn't understand him. The whole class seemed to "not get it", no gender bias there. And he lied about being willing to help.

I waited until college to try again. Once more, one teacher made everything so simple and the next one had at least two failing classes (while I was failing, I also tutored her beginning students).
Shortly after, I was asked to tutor an 8th grader in math. She had my former 8th grade math teacher who openly discriminated against blonde girls (there were 2 other teachers at this school that did that). I'm a brunette and was unpopular so I didn't get that treatment. I taught her pre-algebra methods to solve her word problems. I tell you, 8th grade math was unnecessarily difficult. It's like a perverted gauntlet. She massively improved and didn't require math help the next year.

Except for the one 8th grade math teacher (who hated a particular type of girl), all the "bad" math teachers were indiscriminate. No gender bias. But the overall gruff and stubborn mannerisms may have affected girls more because they felt more internally shamed of their performance.

Years later, in university I took a statistics course that was guaranteed an easy A. I got Cs in it and constant ridicule for "not getting it". No matter what, I couldn't understand the lessons and no one could understand why not.

most of the problems in math come from the way that it is taugh

everyone has a different level of visual learning vs auditory learning.

hence one size doesn't fit all.

figure out what your child needs, and see that they get it.

My son learns by pushing the envelope and getting challenged by harder math. Being in school for 6+ hours, they give them big worksheets of very simple math problems that he learned how to do in kindergarten. Boredom and finger pain make him shut off. He actually "forgot" how to do some of it because he resists it so much.
I administer 3rd grade math to him and in small doses, review the older stuff. (in the form of word problems)

I try to keep it relevant. Word problems involving favorite animals, mom's coffee drinks and expensive video games.
We also have workbooks with advanced math.

Then there is Schoolhouse Rock, which is great for multiplying and explaining "zero".

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actually, once i was told that math wasn't supposed to make sense, i did much better..............i just couldn't comprehend why numbers were multiplied, added, subtracted......just didn't make sense

Once math was translated into a viable skill (word problems, especially percentages) I was able to understand it a lot better. For my son, it's a money/food issue. I'm teaching him fractions in a food context and whole number arithmetic for money handling.

He also believes once he has mastered division, he can graduate school.

i just got so stuck on why......why was 2+3=5?......why would anyone add a letter to numbers ?......why was 3/4=75% ?......and for goodness sake, why is 2:15 expressed as quarter after 2 ????
i accept the fact that math exists. i accept the fact that i've memorized my math facts, well many of them at least. i accept that 2+3=5........it simply doesn't make any sense to me. i'm sure i have dyscalculia in some form.....i didn't learn how to tell time until i was in 4th grade. i didn't understand fractions until i got married and had to start cooking.....i still have to count on my fingers from time to time.