Monday discussion points

I have a girl in my class who, when given support and manipulatives can use them well to work out simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division etc. She can work through questions if she can do it the same way every time. What I have noticed though is that the next day, she cannot remember what she did the day before or even how to go about it. She also can't go about the problem in a different way and can't make links. Her knowledge of times tables is weak and so is her memory. She can't retain facts and finds concentrating and following instructions in order to process what is needed, really difficult.

I'm really struggling to work out which children, might be dyscalculic. In the two classes of Y5 going into Y6 that I assist, there are 61 children so by a percentage game a few of them are likely to have dyscalculia. However, there are quite a lot of children struggling. 6 scored <70 on the latest standardised score and another 7 less than 85. Probably many more than that still count on their finger, even for calculations such as 20+4.
So it's difficult to separate children with problems from those who haven't learnt better strategies. Of the children scoring <85, most of them are getting similar reading scores, and those who are struggling with maths the most generally have another reason, e.g. medical, social, other learning disability, so it's not entirely unexpected.
I would really like to look more closely at their core number skills, but that isn't going to possible until September.

Teaching "resit" students in an FE college (and adults) I'm used to students struggling with maths. I have tended to group their [multiple] barriers to learning into three overlapping categories:
- language (EAL usually, but also first language);
- engagement (multiple reasons, social as well as behavioural);
- mathematical (number sense, conceptual, anxiety)
Many of our 16-18 students assess (for whatever reason) at around the Y4-Y6 level and report having made very little progress in maths between Y7-11.

I have identified (no proper assessment by me) as dyscalculic only a handful because of their extreme problems with number sense (always counting in 1s etc). However, if we are drawing a line at 3-6% then I would be expecting 10-15% of my students to be dyscalculic. (About 100 in any one year!)

Once I widen my gaze accordingly I see the following symptoms:
- very weak number facts and slow to learn them (hence problems with division, hence problems with fractions etc);
- very weak place value understanding, especially in respect of numbers below 1;
- confusion between negative numbers and decimal numbers;
- problems with time and the consequences of the passing of time;
- poor motor skills (writing, using rulers, compasses etc);
- struggles with worded questions and recognising procedural words as mathematical.

I have come across a number of children who have difficulties in Maths and I suspect dyscalculia. I have found working memory a big barrier to learning. I would add sequencing, visualisation, switching from one task to another (similar) one.

I have found that the children who have difficulty in Maths have a weak sense of place value, which then impacts on other aspects of number. Counting 1 more/ less, 10 more/less can be a problem, particularly when they have to switch from one to the other. I teach deaf children, so I have always used visuals and manipulatives in my teaching (Dienes cubes, 10 frames, place value cards, number lines, place value counters, numicon, 100 squares). Not all together, of course!

Visual perception can also be a problem, so drawing the missing half or colouring in the missing squares using a line of symmetry can also be difficult for them.

It's also the language used in their heads. Maths and language is intricately connected. (I have found that with people who have English as an additional language, counting and times tables tends to be in their first language. It's the last thing to go. I am speaking from personal experience and from those around me. I could speak English fluently but it took me years to do x tables in English when I was calculating in my head.)

Hi Lina
Thanks for your post. I think you have pinpointed exactly the issues that these children have. I have a really good example of visual perception difficulties that I will post in the resources section and also here which also illustrates the power of language.Mozzi Blocks.docx (280.27 KB)Mozzi Blocks.docx (280.27 KB)