As much of my work is dedicated to bringing awareness I also browse the web for new approaches, interesting articles, new research and all other things related to dyscalculia. Referrals to those get posted on our site dyscalculiaheadlines.com
This website also has an easy search function and some topics on the sidebar to help people focus on the most interesting articles for them.
In my work with children who have trouble with math I have used various methods and strategies to develop and enhance the mathematical thinking and, among many other useful manipulatives, one of the better ways to help them is by the consistent use of number lines. Moving slowly with them from the number path to the number lines, then to double number lines and eventually even to circular number lines and number lines on a grid to form graphs. View my Masterclass Smart Number Lines
There is a large number of mathematical concepts that can be modeled in various ways. We bombard them with stacks of counters, Cuisenaire rods, base ten blocks, and pizza slices. This may lead to students believing that they are learning many separate topics that each come with their own model, and they often fail to see the connection between topics and across models.
The number line can be the anchor we can tie other models to.
I’ll share the step-by-step progression of understanding mathematical concepts based on an increasingly sophisticated number line. We start from counting and take it to reasoning about the additive and multiplicative connections between quantities as basis for proportions, percentages, unit-conversion, and algebra. One overarching model helps students see the red thread in the relationship between operations and concepts. The number line can be the anchor to which other models may be tied
Briefly I will go over some research about the benefits of working with number lines and then we’ll walk through some examples of using number lines for the various operations.
An often-forgotten category of people with dyscalculia are the adults.
We hear more and more signs from adults who are looking to get closure on their questions about why math has been so difficult for them. Mostly they have dyscalculia but it has never been recognized, assessed or remediated.
As adults have other needs we have created a video series called “Math In Real Life” a video series for people of 18 to 80 with no difficult formulas or factoring polynomials but rather short videos with explanations on how to use math in everyday situations.
From giving tip and change in a restaurant to adjusting a recipe in the kitchen, choosing a mortgage or cell phone contract or even working in the garden. Math is everywhere around us and these adults are very aware of it so we have no less than 37 videos to help them review the basic operations in various ways and apply some easy math to feel more confident in real life.
This video series is for parents who want to help their children with math homework but in the most effective way.
It has 35 videos with either instructions by me about how children learn or the background of the learning process and demonstrations of some well known manipulatives and explanations of interventions on particular topics.
There are about 150 downloadable documents available to support the parents and it is all available immediately when they sign up. https://momsteachmath.com
In my mission to bring more resources for dyscalculia I have recognized the enormous potential we have in the trained dyslexia tutors. There is a 40% comorbidity or overlap between dyslexia and dyscalculia and we hear from dyslexia tutors that they get often asked to also help out with math that the children have problems with.
So I have developed a Transition Training for Dyslexia tutors who want to also work with children who have dyscalculia. see it at https://dys4dys.org