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? with math
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My 13 yr old son is in question here. Here is the story…
He always has struggled in math but yet he doesn’t. Here’s why I say that. If I give him a page in math he will struggle to do it and write it all down. Get’s many wrong for many reasons, but mostly because he forgets what he just was doing. BUT if I say ok we’re going to do math and he does all the ‘work’, tells me what to do, where to write things, what to put where (literally I am the pencil, that’s it truely) then he does a much faster, better and overall his self-image is way better. The part that gets complicated is from knowing it to putting it on paper.
What are your thoughts? How could I strength this? Would it be terribly wrong to work with him? We are using MUS and he’s only in Eplison because of this reason I believe soley. Toughts, comments, suggestions.. Thanks Misty
Is it only math that he has this struggle? Are there other subject areas that he has no problem with working independently? Growing up, my husband was not a test taker. He could recite the material and the facts inside out and upside down, but he said the minute the questions were in front of him on a test or worksheet, he just went blank and it became all about taking the test and getting the answers right and would he have enough time that his mind just couldn’t function. It makes me sad, really that he wasn’t homeschooled, because I think the one on one attention and someone working with him would have done wonders.
From this and your previous post re grammar, your son sounds so much like my 12 year old ds. He struggles with any written work, including writing in math. While the clinic simply called it a learning disability, the term that best describes it that I have found is dysgraphia. I will often do as you do and allow him to “dictate” his math to me. We often use graph paper which helps him to keep his work in the right place value columns. Using a paper with larger squares than standard has helped as well. You can find free printable graph paper online. You may need to experiment with the number of squares per inch. It may also help if you can adjust the exposure so the lines are not too dark. Another thing I’ve found is that too many problems on a page overwhelms him. One solution might be to cover problems not being worked on with a blank sheet of paper so he can’t see them. His focus is then on the problem he’s working on, not worrying about how many he has left. Although it is time consuming, I will usually copy out in pen the problems I want him to do, then if he needs to erase, the problem doesn’t need to be rewritten. I find many of his errors are in copying correctly, though this is improving thanks to regular copy work.
I have a semilar struggle w/my almost 12 DS. It gets really frustrating.
He loves to write so that is not his issue but we have been totally stuck in math. He just keeps making a tone of mistakes but seems to be doing better when we do it together. I am thinking to keep doing math for the summer, which he is not happy about but I think he just needs the practice.
My4- so do you keep writing it for him? I don’t find staying in place on the paper the issue as much as just keeping what’s in his mind all the way to getting it on the paper. I will look into the dysgraphia more though thanks.
We school year round and the summer is when I devote more 1-on-1 time with this son to really try and move forward. I say move forward cause I don’t care if he catches up because that doesn’t always means retention. So move forward. I am wondering if someone doesn’t write it for him things would move easier.
What are your thoughts on spending 30 minutes of math a day, 20 minutes I write out the answers/problems and the last 10 he does himself? Maybe even start less at 5 for him. Then move it to more a day as the summer goes on?
I don’t always write for him now, he is improving. If he has a lot of corrections to do I will to keep him from getting to upset by the whole situation. I find he tries to take short cuts rather than write out all his work, which is a real problem if he gets something wrong and i don’t know where his mistake was because he didn’t show his work.
Leaving out parts of the problem, or in writing, parts of words or sentences is a problem — almost like his hand is unable to keep pace with his brain because the physical activity is so slow and difficult, but his brain functions solo much faster. He’s a really bright kid, and his oral skills pulled him through his PS just fine until his 3rd grade teacher said she was really concerned he wouldn’t be able to keep up in 4th because of all the writing. He was also doing very poorly in math. He is currently on lesson 22 in MUS DELTA despite being at the end of his 6th grade year. But, he’s getting it and I have the time to give one-on-one help as needed. In PS he’d likely have ended up in a special class for remedial learning like his cousin.
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