Maths

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You never know. Some parts of math were very hard for me when I was in elementary school and then later became easy and finally a delight. I now perceive an intrinsic beauty in things that once repelled me.

I like visualization and I like mathematical illustrations. I dislike poor graphic design and a lot of textbooks show that (e.g., icons in the margin that don't convey more information than already delivered by headlines.

My daughter was not as quick with arithmetic as her twin brother, so she decided that she was bad at math and tried to avoid doing any work in math. I used to have to do all sorts of rewards and punishments to get her to do basic math homework and even then 15 minutes worth of work would take 2 hours because of her resistance. \

One day we had an epic contest of wills over some work and she finally gave in when told she would have no access to youtube for a week if she did not do her homework. The first three problems on the sheet had taken more than two hours to complete. She completed the rest of the sheet, 23 problems) in under 20 minutes and then stomped off to her room.

After that, whenever she said, "I am bad at math," I have said, "No, you are good at math but you don't want to do it. You are really good at this--better than most people." This has been going on for a couple of years and I thought my words were not really having an effect, but she is now coming home and proudly talking about the As she is getting on math tests.

People develop. Cognitive capacity changes in developing brains. Psychological factors making something difficult at one moment may change later. These things really aren't set in stone.

I don't know what Belgium's laws are like for disability accommodations. In the US, we have Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which requires schools receiving federal funding to provide student with disabilities a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). Students with disabilities get Individualized Education Plans (IEP's) that list accommodations provided. Does Belgium have anything similar? If so, I don't think it would be too difficult to get the same problems written out on a less overloading worksheet.

You know, one thing I learned after I became homeschooled/online schooled (I was in public school up until 7th grade) is that all math curricula are not the same. Some are made for different types of learners. Though I always loved math (dad's an accountant lol, but he struggled with spelling, and I seemed to have gotten that and perhaps my autism as well from him - it truly shows that everyone has different strengths and weaknesses!), I found pre-algebra and Algebra difficult, as do a lot of students. I also wasn't the type of student to ask for help either. So when I became homeschooled the second semester of that year, I became exposed to homeschool math curricula, which I find a lot different from public school ones, though some curricula do strike me as being a bit more brick-and-mortar-ish, I've found that Teaching Textbooks is by far one of the best math curricula for students who learn differently. (Honestly, I can't even stand typical math textbooks. They just bother me.) I ended up making a 98% in Algebra 2 and a 95% in Geometry using it. (Like nerdygirl mentioned, students can get distracted visually as well. One thing I liked about TT is that it's mainly black and white, even when doing the math problems on the computer; only certain problems have color illustrations.) I'd gotten an 81% in Algebra 1. That's the lowest grade I got in highschool, and I still managed a weighted 4.0. The main difference between the grades was because Teaching Textbooks explained every single problem visually to me. If I didn't understand how to solve it, I watched the video. Simple. There are also some math practice sites, like iXL that basically do the same thing, but on a less comprehensive level. And while a love of math isn't the most important thing, you do want to instill from a young age the feeling that your child can learn math. Many children seem to reach Algebra and just absolutely lose confidence in their mathematical abilities.

Complicated and utterly bureaucratic. All communication with school at the moment goes through the family worker as there is a communication breakdown on my part


That would be too simple She is in special education. Special education schools are in a system totally seperate from mainstream education and has 8 'types' based on disabilities. It's similar to, but not as extensive as the German system. Those with an ASD diagnosis that can't function in the mainstream go into type 7 as that is geared towards more viual teaching methods (type 7 is actually for those with auditive impairments).
She is in a class of 6. They can work at their own pace if need be but work from the same text books and if extra remedial is needed they can get 1:1.


She was beaming tonight when I picked her up because she had a maths test this week and told me she had put her mind to it, concentrated and managed to get a 10/10
Not sure if my hunch is right but I want to concentrate on problem solving excercises i.e.

Every Monday grandad goes cycling with the other OAP's.
They leave at 13.45 and do a 60km ride.
They have a half hour break to drink a beer along the way.
If the average speed of the OAP's is 20km/hr around what time will grandad arrive back home?

Stuff like this they don't seem to cover at school and somehow I feel this is the kind of maths that is conducive to good thinking skills later on in her schooling.
Could be wrong tough...
One big problem with the Belgian school system is that the clever ones are encouraged to study till they drop and the not so clever ones get encouraged as it were to a vocational stream. At age 12 children pretty much have to make educational choices that will define the rest of their school days whilst many children of that age have no idea what secondary school really entails. So in most cases people follow the school advice.
The school does not take further cognitive development into consideration much in my opinion.
I had set Easter2015 as an evaluation point in my own mind but school had a meeting in october 2014, and the outcome was that DD should stream through to vocational in special education in September 2015. They had totally disregarded my input and are not interested in me wanting to possibly keep her in primary for another year to do her last year again.

DD did a career test at school recently and not surprisingly it came out she should aim for 'animal care'. A vocational training that has them start an apprenticeship at 16 and the best they can ever hope to achieve with that study direction is to work in a pet shop.
DD needs to reach GCSE at C-grade level to get into college when we return to the UK and she is slowly realizing that I think and with it comes that comes the realization she will have to make more of an effort.




I don't see it as the most important thing but if she wants to do any studies related to horses she will need the level AND grades just to get on a course.

Yep, that's what I meant.
If you're really worried though, you two could work on supplemental material together - maybe you could request a teacher to recommend something? That way the one-on-one sessions wouldn't be required.

Best of luck!

Seems to me that whether the visual is a help or hindrance depends on how well it depicts the math problem.
A bigger issue is how many problems are on the page. Two to 3 problems per page with well done visuals is probably the best for ASD kids. It is for ADHD. There is roughly 50% overlap in Dx. (e.g. co-morbid, that much co-morbidity indicates to be a degree of common contributors to me).