Homeschooling a Child who struggles in Math & Dyscalculia
With your oldest child, it’s always hard to know what is normal because you are both learning together how children develop and learn. My oldest was ahead in many ways which led us to homeschool them. But as time passed their math skills didn’t keep pace with their advanced writing skills.
When we had the opportunity to pursue testing for learning disabilities and giftedness, we discovered there was a name for these struggles, dyscalculia. Now they had their own learning disability to fit in with their siblings, who are dyslexic and autistic. What I can say is everyone is a little out of the box at our house. What a privilege it is to be already homeschooled as we learn about these differences and can make adjustments for our child with dyscalculia.
What is Dyscalculia?
Dyscalculia isn’t something I knew anything about before I started seeing it in my own child. Dyslexia is talked about much more and having a learning disability in math is not talked about as much. It wasn’t until I had to reteach multiplication for the 3rd time that I decided there had to be something more at work than just a bad teacher or unwilling student. And together my student and I set out to find a real solution for her struggles and build her math confidence up.
- A lack of number sense
- Difficulty with estimating time for a task
- Difficulty of understanding more or less
- Correlating a quantity to the numerical representation
The Struggle for our Student
During our preschool years, math skills came easy, and early addition was a part of our daily life as we counted and added everything around us. It took a little bit to find our preferred math curriculum as we headed into the elementary years, but nothing seemed to be amiss. When it was time to master the Addition facts, however, things started to slow down.
Some of my homeschool friends assured me as we moved forward in memorizing Math Facts that it would come and to not worry too much. We moved on but the memory didn’t happen. The next time we returned to Addition to build on our previous skills, the old skills were lost and we had to stop and review the Addition table extra before moving on. The same thing happened when we got to multiplication. We returned to our multiplication table to learn the facts 3 different times and tried different programs each time since it wasn’t sticking.
It was frustrating to both my student and me, but we didn’t know what else to do. We decided the spiral method of learning math was not working for her. Learning a little bit of every math content each year and building on it wasn’t working.
In a desperate move we tried a mastery-based program that focused on one math topic through the steps of building and practicing that topic for the year. This helped her mind practice the one topic and understand it as she spent a longer time with it. The irony is that we had tried this mastery-based program in the early years and didn’t like it and threw it out saying it wasn’t our style and we wouldn’t use it ever again. 5 years later that program I threw out is the only program she wants to use as it built her confidence and taught her the way she needed to learn.
Hacks and Tips for Dyscalculia
As our family began to understand Dyscalculia we determined to set our student up for success. We first encouraged their other areas of strength so that struggling in this area didn’t negatively affect their self-worth. We also intentionally slow down our math instruction and seek mastery in each concept instead of keeping a schedule to cover the material on a schedule. We did this in 3 ways.
Tip #1 Make Math Hands On
Our child doesn’t naturally ask for hands-on learning but we found encouraging the hands-on materials including using blocks and manipulatives made a difference. Connecting the written number to the amount can be a difficult concept for Dyscalculia, so using manipulatives strengthens that weak number sense. We also looked at the best math board games to try and retain math in fun ways.
Tip #2 Using Aids and Extra Time
Many of the struggles of Dyscalulia are in the computation of math facts, which can slow a student down when they advance to more complex math concepts. Making visual aids and calculators available to the students allows them to move forward in math concepts without being slowed down by their known weaknesses. Offering these aids after the concepts are initially mastered can give the student confidence.
Also, offering extra time for testing situations can be helpful as more time is needed for the extra work the student may need to do. At our house, we have not done timed math fact tests because the pressure of the clock gives my students more anxiety and they perform worse than without a timer. Quick recall of math facts is helpful but it is also not worth doing at the expense of a child’s confidence.
Tip #3 Use Everyday Math as a Family
Taking Math out of the classroom and into life can be a helpful strategy for building your child’s skills. When you are in the kitchen cooking you can include the child in the measuring. If you are altering a recipe your child can help with the conversions. Seeing their classroom math in real life can be good motivation.
Another idea is playing math-related games as a family such as War or even Phase 10. These can help build number sense for your child in a fun way. Phase 10 uses runs of numbers and sets of numbers to win a hand and can be played with a wide range of ages.
Next Steps and Resources We Love
I’m just a mom learning about these things because my children needed me to. My goal by sharing some of our experiences with you and the answers we have found will be helpful to you as well. Here are a few more resources that I have found helpful as we learn more and find the best fit for helping my child find success with these challenges.
Math-U-See – From Demme Learning. Their unique sequence to teaching math has been the key for my child. Each year of the program takes a skill set and builds it from basic understanding all the way through advanced skills. The Alpha level teaches only single-digit addition and subtraction and related concepts including shapes and time. While the following level Beta takes addition and subtraction all the way to multi-digit problems with measurement and time included. The multi-digit addition may not be seen for another year in more traditional programs which revisit each concept each year but for my child, it was easier to stay with the same concept for longer and dive deep into understanding and using it all at once.
Understood.org – This is one of my favorite sites to learn about learning differences and challenges. They have gathered resources on different learning disabilities and challenges and offer easy-to-understand descriptions and suggestions for accommodations all in one place.
Dyscalculia.org – is a dedicated site for information and resources on the learning disability. It has information for assessments as well as suggestions for accommodations and therapies. The site includes material to use to access accommodations at the collegiate level for the classroom and many suggestions for interventions.
