“What about DYSCALCULIA MAKES MATH SO HARD?”
DYSCALCULIA EXPERT: RENEE HAMILTON-NEWMAN, M.Ed., M.S.-Sp.Ed.- Presented by Renee Hamilton-Newman, M.S.-Special Education, M.Ed. Instructional Design
- Audience Poll
- What about Dyscalculia Makes Math so Hard?
- What Dyscalculia Looks Like
- Essential Processes: Counting/Sequencing; Visual Memory; Auditory Memory; Sequential Memory; Working Memory; Procedural Memory; Visual-Spatial-Directional-Sequential Processing; Verbal Fluency; Sensory Integration.; Kinesthetic/Motor Skills.
- Factors: Cognitive Load; Emotion; History; Anxiety; Prerequisite Skills (ex. Number Sense, Math Language Fluency, Understanding Decimal Place Value Framework)
- Solutions: Auxiliary Memory (Place Value Chart, Writing, Illustrations, Models, References); Quantitative Language Fluency (verbal, receptive, interpretation, translation, written, math symbols and syntax); Modeling Numbers (money, coins...).
Speaker
Renee Newman, M.Ed., M.S.-Sp.Ed., discusses the characteristics and origins of developmental math disorders, how certain methods and materials present challenges to LD students, and what tools and strategies reach the hard to teach. Renee's dyscalculic insights intimately inform her practice. Renee brings 38 years of experience with dyscalculia, dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD, and ASD, as a student, therapist, diagnostician, parent, teacher, instructional designer, trainer, and administrator. For over 25 years, she's authored the nonprofit Dyscalculia.org site, aggregating the latest news, research, experts, strategies, and resources to optimize outcomes for those with learning disorders.Introduction
No matter the latest, greatest fads in math instruction, the dyscalculic student is often lost. They may be hopping ahead of their peers in reading and writing, but dread being embarrassed in math class. A number line is obvious, but its visual presentation may create mental static that interferes with performance. For many reasons, the struggling student is unable to effectively connect and keep up in the learning environment, but this is not an attention deficit disorder. This webinar explains why even good math instruction "doesn't stick" for the dyscalculic learner, and how to optimally engage at-risk students and achieve deep understanding and math fluency.Dyscalculia Signs & Research: PDF containing presentation slides - References
DYSCALCULIA WEBINAR TAKEAWAYS
- Spot dyscalculia in the classroom and at home
- Identify deficient processes and skills that impair learning
- Inattention or failure to engage?
- Identify and prevent math anxiety
- Instruct in the language of mathematics
- Expedite deep understanding, mental flexibility, and logical reasoning
- Equip students with relevant tools and strategies for understanding and reasoning about numbers in context and in symbolic form
TOPICS
(1) Renee shares personal experiences with dyscalculia and dyslexia. (2) Audience is asked who, why, and what they need to know.(3) Dyscalculia is a collection of deficiencies that compound to impair quantitative reasoning. (4) MLD has many origins and presentations. Dyscalculia Research(5) Insufficient Working Memory (the mental counter space used to consider and operate on ideas). (6) Number sequencing and Procedural Memory may be weak. (7) Context-specific weaknesses in Visual-Spacial-Directional-Sequential Processing. (8) Context-specific Visual Memory weakness. (9) Auditory Memory weakness. (10) Cognitive Thresholds overwhelmed. (11) Emotion and Historical Experience. (12) Solutions: Deep understanding of the language of Mathematics (ideas, words, symbols, syntax, the decimal system); utilize auxiliary memory (references, place value chart, models); achieve Math Language Fluency. PRESENTER INTRODUCTION Renee has a Bachelor's Degree in Communications; training in dyslexia diagnosis and therapy; a Master's Degree in Special Education; a Specialist Certificate in Distance Education; and a Master of Education Degree in Instructional Design. Renee has practiced since 1992, held leadership positions on school boards for 16 years, and has served on boards of nonprofit organizations since 1995. For 25 years, she's maintained Dyscalculia.org, a nonprofit resource for dyscalculia, dyslexia, dysgraphia, and other syndromes that hinder efficient learning and living.
Renee has dyscalculia. An early and voracious reader, Renee worked hard to conceal her struggles with math. She attended college at 14, yet recalls not understanding zero in a 7th-grade math class. In the Honors Track in a private high school, she insisted on lower math, but disruptive students left her in tears. She attempted Algebra 6 times. When the university queried her guidance counselor, they rewarded Renee's tenacity with early admission and a scholarship.
At UW, advisors laughed when Renee announced she wanted to be an engineer. She failed remedial Algebra, and wrote a letter to the professor, listing her brain glitches; it later became The Dyscalculia Checklist. She was successful with 1:1 testing, which allowed the catching and correcting of dyscalculic mistakes, verbal reasoning, illustration, and color-coding.
In college, her fiance excelled in design, drafting, and understanding mechanical concepts, yet claimed he couldn't read the textbooks. Testing uncovered dyslexia and a 2nd-grade reading level. Dyslexia therapy was successful.
When another math class was required, Renee tested for MLD and was diagnosed with dyscalculia, but the college responded with insults and no support.
When married, 4 years later, Renee studied to be a dyslexia therapist because dyslexia can be inherited. After practicing for 6 years, she pursued an M.S. in Special Education, and Professor Mahesh Sharma supplied ample information for her focus on dyscalculia. In 1997, she created a website to aggregate research on dyslexia and dyscalculia, best practices, programs, tools, books, resources, and advocacy. It eventually became Dyscalculia.org, a popular global resource.
WHAT IS DYSCALCULIA?
Dyscalculia, a syndrome, is a collection of symptoms that individually, and collectively, create various degrees of learning and living challenges.
Dyscalculics may experience many early and persistent difficulties with left-right confusion; reading clocks, gauging/tracking time; calendars; remembering dates, numbers, faces, names, and facts; planning; organizing; counting; sequencing; visualizing; motor memory, sequencing, coordination, execution (tying shoes, sports, dance, riding a bike, drawing, penmanship);
Specific Learning Disorders (SLDs) in Mathematics, Reading, and Written Expression are defined in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), published by the American Psychiatric Association. SLD is defined as a "Specific Learning Disorder-- with impairment in Mathematics (315.1), Reading (315.0), or Written Expression (315.2). SLD is "a neurodevelopmental disorder of biological origin manifested in learning difficulties and problems in acquiring academic skills markedly below age level and manifested in the early school years, lasting for at least 6 months, not attributed to intellectual disabilities, developmental disorders, or neurological or motor disorders." More on Dyscalculia symptoms, terms, definitions, and laws.
DYSCALCULIA CHARACTERISTICS
cannot keep up with math lessons
uses inefficient and primitive strategies for counting and problem-solving (fingers, tally marks, dots, repeated + or -)
becomes overwhelmed, tears up, frustrated, anxiety, panic, mental block/ blanks out / can't retrieve learned information
under-performs in spite of adequate or extraordinary effort and practice, high intelligence, excellent ability to attend/focus/persist
disorganized: papers, writing, numbers, dots, problem-solving, preparation order of operations, motor planning, etc.
sequencing difficulties: steps, operations, reasoning, motor planning, manipulatives, speech, recall
takes an inordinate amount of time to complete work - thinks slowly, works deliberately but with errors
may think quickly but makes prediction errors, perseveration errors, errors in signs, operations, writing/speaking/reading/reasoning.
appears disconnected - not engaged, lost, unable to process and perform as expected: (can attend, but engagement is lost when the student is unable to comprehend or make mental connections).
can repeat patterns, but soon forgets, in spite of typical or extra practice
accidental number-order and recall errors when copying, writing, reading, speaking, and thinking
difficulty with time: perceiving and managing time
difficulty with direction: overwhelmed by directional sequences in arithmetic, changing classes, navigating, geography
weak pattern recognition, memory, and recall; clocks / telling time (visual-spatial weakness, orientation, organization)
doesn't register all information seen, especially details of fast action (visual processing: speed, perception, processing)
difficulty repeating demonstrations, difficulty remembering sequences of operations (weak motor sequencing and planning)
"careless errors": switched operations and signs, borrowing, carrying, alignment, number mixups, omissions, insertions
loses track when counting, hesitates at pattern transitions (19 to 20),
cannot hold numbers in mind (working memory)
difficulty memorizing math facts and procedures (inconsistent memory and retrieval)
easily frustrated or overwhelmed
avoids math, experiences anxiety
imperfect retrieval of quantitative information
limited ability to imagine or visualize abstract concepts or images without seeing them
poor number sense, or the ability to estimate or compare quantities
inappropriately preserves a number, operation, or idea and repeats it erroneously (perseveration)
DYSCALCULIA SOLUTIONS
A Math Look by Dyscalculia.org