Visual aids are so important

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Dyscalculia: News from the web:

Seen on Twitter from someone who saw it on Facebook, but here is the story. Our students often have difficulty grouping like terms or substituting. As soon as we change the symbolic language for pictures of something they are familiar with, their focus changes and they have less difficulty working the problems. Hence the cycle Concrete representational abstract. So if they have problems with the abstract notation, move back to the representational.

Improving spatial skills will improve math skills

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Dyscalculia: News from the web:

It has now been confirmed, although there was an understanding about it a lot longer. Age and gender do not make a difference, the improvement of spatial skills will improve the math skills of all, so time for action.

Read all about it: HERE

Realigning Learning

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Dyscalculia: News from the web:

Teachlearning.com urges us to realign learning as we would do with our cars.

Read all about it: HERE

Finding the subitizing in groupitizing

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Dyscalculia: News from the web:

‘Groupitizing’ refers to the observation that visually grouped arrays can be accurately enumerated much faster than can unstructured arrays. Previous research suggests that visual grouping allows participants to draw on arithmetic abilities and possibly use mental calculations to enumerate grouped arrays quickly and accurately. Here, we address how subitizing might be involved in finding the operands for mental calculations in grouped dot arrays. We investigated whether participants can use multiple subitizing processes to enumerate both the number of dots and the number of groups in a grouped array. We found that these multiple subitizing processes can take place within 150 ms and that dots and groups seem to be subitized in parallel and with equal priority. Implications for research on mechanisms of groupitizing are discussed.

Read all about it: HERE

Estimation a key skill

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Dyscalculia: News from the web:

Building children’s estimation skills supports their number sense and helps them judge whether a number is reasonable or not.

Estimation is the process of evaluating a quantity when the situation calls for a rough or tentative number. An estimate is not merely a “guess.” A reasonable estimate depends upon mathematical understandings of both numerosity and measurement.

Read all about it: HERE