30 May 2018
Life Concepts Crucial to Maths learning:
William, as a dyslexic learner, has eliminated most of the reasons causing his dyslexia intervention programme with me last year. Within 6 months he was performing with ease on the required level of his grade. (William was tested on average 2 years below his age and grade.) He was not anymore regarded as learning disabled.
Like most dyslexic persons, William is not a verbal thinker but is thinking in terms of pictures or images. Therefore, when reading, he will encounter about 230 little words in English (187 in Afrikaans), the so-called sight words, abstract words, which do not represent a meaningful picture or a true image of the meaning of the word in his mind. These little words caused him to experience a serious learning difficulty, despite his high intelligence! (Please read again the explanation of what dyslexia is, under the heading WHAT IS DYSLEXIA)
During the Dyslexia Correction Interventions, William was given the well proven basic “tools” and techniques to be able to control his dyslexia and has successfully corrected the reasons that caused his dyslexia to become a learning disability.
But then the devastating news!
William was still struggling with his Math. He failed or nearly failed one test after the other. Math was a major mystery to him, despite extra remedial classes.
So then, why is he still struggling with maths in his grade? Please read on to find the answer.
A very short overview of the Maths Missing Concept programme :
Math difficulties among dyslexics, in addition to their regular reading issues, are typically referred to as dyscalculia or acalculia. The way math is taught in traditional classrooms leads to a lot of common problems with the subject. But regardless of the use of traditional teaching methods, dyslexics have a transient deficit that can make learning math challenging, if not impossible.
Dyscalculia: some difficulty in performing some aspects of arithmetic or mathematics.
Acalculia: cannot perform arithmetic at all.
Children with dyslexia frequently experience time-sense abnormalities, which can be directly linked to calculia and dyscalculia. They happen concurrently with disorientations related to vision, hearing, and balance/motion.
These two terms refer to difficulties in studying or expressing the relationships between quantities and magnitudes as represented by numbers, numerals, and symbols; or they describe difficulties in learning how to manipulate numbers or numerals in order to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Children with dyslexia frequently experience time-sense abnormalities, which can be directly linked to calculia and dyscalculia. They happen concurrently with disorientations related to vision, hearing, and balance/motion.
These two terms refer to difficulties in studying or expressing the relationships between quantities and magnitudes as represented by numbers, numerals, and symbols; or they describe difficulties in learning how to manipulate numbers or numerals in order to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
These two terms refer to difficulties in studying or expressing the relationships between quantities and magnitudes as represented by numbers, numerals, and symbols; or they describe difficulties in learning how to manipulate numbers or numerals in order to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
Install Life Concepts!
Concepts that need to be addressed to understand WHY 1+3=4.
• consequence: something that happens as a result of something else. 1 becomes a 4 because 3 was added to the 1.
• time: the measurement of change. There was a time lapse in the process of the 1 changing to a 4.
• sequence: the way things follow each other one after another. First was the 1, THEN came 3 that was then added with the 1, and ONLY THEN the 1 changed into a 4.
The sequence or steps is: 1 → +3 → =4
• order: things in their proper places, proper positions, and proper conditions (e.g disorderly handwriting can cause mistakes, like confusing x with +. )
Due to the intrinsic characteristics of dyslexia, specifically the confusion brought on by abstract, picture-less words, the aforementioned life concepts frequently vanish from the dyslexic’s consciousness. And for that reason, even with the finest instructor in the world and a high IQ, there is a math learning impairment. Thankfully, there is an easy fix for this math learning challenge.
Contact me, Jan Viljoen at info@dyslexiasolutions.co.za.
It worked for William. This term he has been passing all his Math tests with honours.
(And he now also knows WHY 9 times 9 equals 81 !)