Is this dyscalculia?

[alicai]

I just sat down with DD9 to do a chapter review with her. So this is familiar material. She said she couldn't understand the question, which was asking her to show the area of a larger rectangle as the sum of the area of smaller rectangles. Working on this with her, I realized that she remembered how to derive perimeter but had no idea how to derive an area, despite having done this before many times in many ways. So we re-derived the meaning of area vs perimeter. We did it with rods, she watched a video on it, we did lots of examples, she said she understood it really well. We solved the original problem. I strongly suspect that if I give her an area problem in a couple of days, she won't be able to solve it.

 

We moved on to the next problem, which was a basic double digit multiplication. She has completely forgotten how to do it, despite having been taught it multiple times and having solved many problems correctly in the past. I think the problem was 60*30. In addition to forgetting to pad a leading zero in the second row (and we stopped and re-derived why we would do that), she then tried to say that the 3 times the 6 (being tens) would result in a 180 and tried to write that portion in a third row because that's where you deal with hundreds.

 

She then proceeded to correctly solve 4 problems using the algorithm. In the 5th one, she again reverted to thinking about what each multiplication would produce and dealing with just that piece in a different row.

 

I am so frustrated and I am having difficulty maintaining my patience and not just freaking out, which is unfair to her. I feel like we need to be doing something fundamentally different.

Edited March 19, 2018 by raisingainsley

[EKS]

If it makes you feel any better, I have had the same sorts of forgetting issues with my son over the years and he is *gifted* in math (really).  He would get a concept or procedure, do the problems competently, be able to explain back the whys, and a week later not only have forgotten how to do the thing, but have no memory of having done anything like it ever in his life.  It drove me crazy.

[alicai]

If it makes you feel any better, I have had the same sorts of forgetting issues with my son over the years and he is *gifted* in math (really).  He would get a concept or procedure, do the problems competently, be able to explain back the whys, and a week later not only have forgotten how to do the thing, but have no memory of having done anything like it ever in his life.  It drove me crazy.

It really does drive me insane, but I at least feel somewhat better if she's not alone in this. Part of the problem may be that my oldest is the complete opposite - when she gets it, she gets it and she's done.

 

I still suspect dyscalculia. She has had a terrible time learning math facts and I have thrown the kitchen sink at it. She has mild dysgraphia and ADHD, which I hear are often co-morbid with dyscalculia. For years, we could only do math if I wrote for her. She still prefers it if I write for her.

[PeterPan]

The ADHD can do that. Working memory is the scratch area of the brain where things go before long term memory. So building working memory can help. Games are the best way to build working memory.

 

Also have you read Dyslexic Advantage? My dd has straight ADHD, no SLDs, but she fit their profile with the widely spaced mini columns. It means she needs more exposures and more connections to make things stick. Adding narrative, history, art etc to the math can help build things she connections.

 

BJU, TT, and MUS were all good for her. MM was bleh, too dry.

Edited March 19, 2018 by PeterPan

[Storygirl]

I think that you would need a professional evaluation to know for sure. But forgetting previously learned math is part of DS's math disability, so I'm just saying that it's possible. He has trouble mastering concepts. So he can learn an algorithm and follow it and seem to understand during the daily lessons, but it doesn't stick, and things that he does not constantly practice, he forgets.

 

I think our brains are not perfect, and so anyone can forget things!! But if math has been difficult for years, it could be a dyscalculia, or it could be linked to the ADHD, which often comes with working memory problems.

[exercise_guru]

I have a son who is not a fan of handwriting even now he complains that he has to show his work. His father and I both have advanced degrees with heavy emphasis in mathematics. It's just been my experience that math is hooked to the hand writing stuff down and using scratch paper goes with math. Both of us use paper to take notes, we graph things and have lists and paperwork. It's like my mind moves into gear when I am writing. I don't post this to discourage you but to epathize. I have worked and worked to help my son show his math to help build his skills. I am actually quite auditory but I do not use that part of my brain when I do math. It takes real work for me to walk someone through more advanced math without "showing" them with a pen and paper. I think of it as my working memory. I was trained to write my math in a column so I could back up steps as needed.

 

For math I love those wipe able sheets by lakeshore learning one side is graph grid lines and one side is blank. I would fill out a stack of those with math problems and have him work a problem and pass it to me. He would take another one from the stack and he knew he was done when the stack was empty. I would grade them ans pass them back. When we were done math time was done.

 

 

 

This might offer some clues on how to help your child. Use a whiteboard and have her work the answers that might help.

 

Also in the brick and motor schools they repeat all this stuff for the first part of the year. My son did multiplication in both 2nd grade and 3rd grade. He gets annoyed because they keep repeating stuff. So don't be hard on the homeschool front . When I did this with my oldest two everything just worked (atleast that is my nostalgic recollection). It was a pretty easy gig. My younger has been a real challenge.

 

You could certainly test her so you have a better idea where she is at. Some kiddos just take far more review to get that memory to longterm especially if working memory is an issue.

 

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk