Children come into the school year either liking math or not liking math. It can cause anxiety and fear, and low self esteem and low self confidence seems to be made worse by anything mathematical.
- There is no cure for dyscalculia.
- It’s not a phase a child will outgrow.
- Like the color of a person’s hair, it’s part of who they are.
- It’s the way their brain processes math.
- It’s important to remember that every child with dyscalculia has different strengths and weaknesses so take the time to find these out.
- Create a stable foundation on which to build more skills.
- Hands on approach with materials.
- Grouping and regrouping very important.
- The long-range goal is to teach calculation techniques and reasoning that use math principles to solve math problems.
I have been working with number patterns - taking away the fear of being right or wrong - by having open ended problems that need reasoning and personal circumstances when solving. I think the attitude of half my class who came in saying that they can't do math and math is too hard, is changing. They are starting to understand that math is about patterns and looking for a pattern, finding the pattern, understanding the pattern, and then applying the pattern, takes away some of the anxiety they feel.
I dont have students who are Dyscalculaic, however several of the points above are important for those who do find math challenging - grouping and regrouping, hands on, find the strengths, calculation techniques that make sense to the child - are important in a math programme. I found math difficult at school, and I think this struggle has actually strengthened my ability to teach math in a way that is accessible and built on patterns.
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