• CHAPTER ANNOTATION

1. INTRODUCTION TO LEARNING DISABILITIES
2. DEFINING LEARNING DISABILITIES
3. CLASSIFICATION OF LEARNING DIFFICULTIES
4. PREVALENCE AND ETIOLOGY OF LEARNING DISABILITIES
5. ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING DISABILITIES
6. READING DIFFICULTIES
7. WRITTEN LANGUAGE DEFICITS
8. MATH UNDERACHIEVEMENT
9. MOTOR COORDINATION DEFICITS
10. ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER
11. SOURCES AND LITERATURE

8. MATH UNDERACHIEVEMENT

Mathematics Disorder (dyscalculia)is „a specific disturbance in learning and mathematical concepts and computation“. An analogous term in reading is dyslexia. Students with dyscalculia experience difficulties in reception, comprehension and production of quantitative and/or spatial information.

Students with math disorder most often show one or more of these characteristics :

• difficulty understanding concepts of place value, and quantity, number lines, positive and negative value, carrying and borrowing,
• forgetting steps when doing math problems, multiple-step word problems,
• difficulty understanding concepts related to time such as days, weeks, months, seasons, quarters, etc.,
• problems with directions: up-down, left-right, align numbers,
• difficulty organizing problems on the page, keeping numbers lined up, following through on long division problems,
• problems in handling or changing money,
• difficulty putting language to math processes.

Educational Approaches

Progress in math is to a large extent given by the quality of previously learned skills. The instruction has to be clear, unambiguous, and systematic with key prerequisite skills taught in advance. New math operation can be taught only after the preceding has been mastered. In the early stages the following methods are recommended :

1. Classification and grouping

This stage precedes teaching numerals, its aim is understanding of basic concepts necessary for mathematical operations.

•  sorting games (colour, texture, shape, size, etc. with one or more characteristic in common),
• matching and sorting (use of manipulatives: big-small, same, smaller-bigger, more-less, etc.),

2. Ordering

In this stage students are introduced to numerals. The main aim is understanding of the symbol and its meaning.

• numerals (more-less, matching numerals and objects, measuring and pairing, what comes after 5, etc.)
• numeral lines (orientation on numerical line, showing numbers according to dictation, comparison of numbers, etc.)
• arraying by size or length (comparing and contrasting objects of different size, formulating concepts of smaller and bigger, etc.)

3. Recognition of numbers

Students must learn to recognize both printed numbers and words expressing them. Furthermore, they must learn to recognize their graphics form and understand their meaning.

• reading of numbers
• recognition of figure and background (identification of numbers, their highlighting)
• division of numbers into units and tens
• graphic representation of numbers

4. Computation skills

When teaching computation skills it is recommended to use simple numbers so that the student can focus on the mathematical operation not the number itself. Every operation is divided into small steps. We use manipulatives and graphics to explain mathematical operations.