Math Disability

Is it OK to just be bad at math if you can read and write with fluency?   This seems to be the philosophy when it comes to education.  About 6% of school age children struggle with basic Math concepts.   These children are seldom referred for special education testing.  Its believed that these children who struggle are lazy or just don’t take the time to learn there math facts or concepts.  In reality learning disabilities in math are as wide spread as other forms of disabilities like Reading.  Students who struggle in math can struggle for a variety of reasons like poor calculating skills, not understanding signs, difficulties with math language, or may have visual spatial problems.  All of these things would cause someone to struggle in math and they can range from mild to severe disabilities.  Which is why its hard to diagnose because it is so wide spread and there is no substantial research that categorizes math disabilities.  In fact many times math Learning disabilities are grouped into one category called Dyscalculia.  One area that is responsible for our ability in math is our number sense.

Number sense describes a cluster of ideas, such as the meaning of a number, ways of representing numbers, relationships among numbers, the relative magnitude of numbers, and skill in working with them.

We gain our number sense at an early age some say as early as 3 or 4 years old.  Number sense can also be tied to our socioeconomic status.  There is a researched based program that can help develop our number sense.  This program comes from the UK and is called NUMICON.

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NUMICON is used to show number ideas and number relationships.  It uses shapes to represent numbers and it provides a multi sensory approach to learning math.  Numicon uses whats called a feely bag to help students gain a

mental image of what a number looks and feels like.  The goal of numicon is to bring together the sense of feeling, seeing, thinking, speaking, reading and writing of a number.  This program can be used by a whole class in a small group or one to one.  It was designed for children in the elementary school but it can be used for older students who are struggling with number sense. There are 6 kits you can purchase.

1. At home kit ages 3-5
2. Firm foundations kit ages 4-5
3. Numicon kit 1 ages 5-7
4. Numicon kit 2 ages 6-8
5. Closing the gap with Numicon ages 4 +
6. Numicon Intervention Program (Have to be trained)

Summary

Overall I think this is a great program and I would love to try it in my classroom.  I do however believe that there is no single approach to math and math concepts that will reach all students.  As teachers we should try a variety of teaching methods to reach all of our learners.  This program certainly promotes a positive number sense and definitely provides a root system for kids to understand math and its many complex parts.  It shows kids that there is a relationship between numbers and they can see this visually when they put the numicon pieces together.  For example the 6 and 4 piece put together make the same shape as the 10 piece.  This can be a valuable learning experience for a younger students.  The beauty of this program is thats its never to late to use it and it will help older students gain number sense and ease some of there anxiety about math.  This program could have much potential for our students here in the United States and I only hope we adopt a program like this.  I look forward to hopefully using this in my math resource room because I know it will have unparalleled success.

Executive Functions- Brain processes which are responsible for abstract thinking, planning, cognitive flexibility, and rule acquisition.  Executive Functions are the high level functions that effect the more basic abilities like memory, attention and motor skills.Executive Functions allow us to be successful in our everyday life.

These functions enable us to adapt quickly to change and make new plans or arrangements at a moments notice.  They also help us control our impulses so we don’t say or do something that we may regret later.  This is why it’s important that our executive functions work properly in order to be socially accepted.

Executive functions can be associated with numerous disorders such as Tourette’s Syndrome, Depression, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD) and Autism.

There are 8 areas or functions that make up our executive functions. They are Inhibition, Shift, Emotional Control, Inhibition, Working Memory, Planning/Organization, Organization of Materials, and Self Monitoring.

1. Inhibition-Poor inhibition results in impulsivity or an impulsive personality.
2. Shift-The ability to move from one situation or task to another and create appropriate responses.
3. Emotional Control-Ability to control your feelings in a given situation.
4. Initiation-The ability to create responses or ideas and problem solving skills.
5. Working Memory-The ability or capacity to remember specific details or facts required to complete tasks.
6. Planning/Organization-The ability to manage time and space for future activities (event planning).
7. Organization of materials-Ability to create order in your place of work or play etc.
8. Self Monitoring-The ability to compare or measure one’s self to the norm of what’s expected or needed.

Out of these 8 functions or abilities I would like to focus on working memory and what we might be able to do to help improve it.  Working memory is defined as our short term memory.  Working memory is our system for organizing information required to carry out complex tasks such as learning, reasoning and comprehension.  I would like to look at one way in which to improve our working memory using Mnemonic Instruction.

Mnemonic Instruction is linking the known with the unknown.  Usually the unknown is linked to the known using pictures or rhymes.  There are three methods of delivering mnemonic instruction: Pegword, Letter, Keyword.

Pegword:  A system of rhyming words called pegwords that replace numbers or sequence.  This list is a basic example.

Letter: Letter strategies use acronyms and acrostics. Here are a few common examples.

Keyword: Strategies use pictures or images to associate the known or keyword to what’s being taught.

Keywords for Selected Musical Periods, Composers

*The keyword “broke” is depicted by an individual with his or her pockets turned out.

www.teachingld.org/ ld_resources/alerts/5.htm

The Pegword system is a reliable way to remember simple lists of things.  But, they require some basic prior knowledge and creativity to make a mental image.   With practice, this technique can be very successful for things like spelling lists, dates of events and sequencing information.

Letter strategies are my personal favorite because if you create a good one it will stay with you forever just like the examples I gave or who could forget PEMDAS in Math. This was used to remember the order of operations: Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction.  In my mind this is the best way to remember a particular sequence for subjects like Math or History but, its applications are also limited. Keyword can be helpful as well but like the last two strategies it requires a lot of creativity and basic prior knowledge.  With practice it can be a good strategy or technique to use for studying and memorizing facts.

These three mnemonic strategies are a great way to improve working memory and if done well can be effective for a long time.   Although the pegword system is very basic and seems to be limited on the number of things you could remember there is another system that uses letters instead of images and this list could be seemingly endless.  Here is a video that explains it.

WORKS CITED

The Access Center (2010). Using Mnemonic Instruction to Facilitate Access to the General Education Curriculum. Retrieved March 5, 2010, from http://www.k8accesscenter.org/training_resources/Mnemonics.asp

Scruggs T, and Mastropieri M. (1991) Exceptional Children, Vol. 58, Classroom Applications of Mnemonic Instruction: Acquisition, Maintenance, and Generalization. Retrieved March 5, 2010 from http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5000139714

Teaching LD (2010) Alert 5: Mnemonic Instruction. Retrieved on March 5, 2010 from http://www.teachingld.org/ld_resources/alerts/5.htm

Michael (2009).Episode 96 (video): Mnemonics Advanced: The Pegword System Part 2. Retrieved on March 5, 2010 from http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2009/05/episode-96-video-mnemonics-advanced-the-pegword-system-part-2/