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Hello and welcome to this newest edition of What In The World is Dyscalculia.

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The podcast all about the math learning disability.

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This podcast is sponsored by EduCalc Learning and I'm your host, Dr. Honora Wall.

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If you've listened to our podcast in the past, you know that I had begun the podcast

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originally using the term the way I heard it the way I first had my training in 
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Now to be phonetically proper, the correct pronunciation is Dys-cal-COOL-ia.

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And we did talk about that in the very first podcast.

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I still maintain that in whichever accent you use whichever emphasis on the syllables

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and however you get those vowel sounds out.

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As long as we're talking about the math learning disability, I am a happy person.

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However, when you know better you do better and since Dyscalculia is the technically

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correct term, we're going to start using that more frequently in the podcast.

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Now I might slip up because certainly the first few years of my training, I only heard people

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saying Discalc-Yulia.

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Of course, a difference in pronunciation is only one of the many, many different misconceptions

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and misunderstandings about the math learning disability.

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And that's what we try to clear up in these podcasts.

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But today I want to talk a little bit about something exciting as we start another new school

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year.

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There are a lot of interesting things going on out there that I'd like to make you aware of.

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One of course is the non-profit that I recently opened, the Dyscalculia

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 training and research institute.

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The website for that is www.thedtri.org.

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And hopefully you can check us out and we'll be expanding that website, putting more information

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and links and research and really focusing on the awareness piece through that 501c3.

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In the near future, as we start taking funds and doing fundraising, getting donations for

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that, those donations will be going towards printing, creating and distributing brochures

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and pamphlets to psychologists, especially school, psychologists, school guidance counselors,

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so that school administrators, teachers, parents and students have some ready access to

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frequently asked questions and information about Dyscalculia and what it looks like in

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the classroom and how to best support students who have this learning disability.

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And then of course I really want to expand a lot into the field of supporting adults who

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have this math learning disability and are looking for resources of their own.

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So those are some exciting things we'll be doing in this upcoming year.

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Another thing I'm very excited about is the online math courses that EduCalc Learning

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is putting out that are designed for people with Dyscalculia.

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So the accommodations, interventions, the increased scaffolding, training and how to use

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the right support tools, the direct instruction.

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All of that is built into the program by design.

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And right now we have a fifth grade, an algebra 2, and a personal financial literacy available.

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And we're building out more grade levels.

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And you can find out more at educalclearning.com or email me, honora at educalclearning.com.

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But not only exciting things in house, there's a lot of exciting things in the broader

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community.

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And one of those exciting things is the increased awareness and interest in Dyscalculia
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I've had a lot of people email me and reach out and we're having very interesting conversations

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about Dyscalculia, how it intersects with the field of gifted students, how visual

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spatial skills in all areas can help students who have Dyscalculia, where those things

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overlap and how having strong visual spatial skills certainly makes overcoming the challenge

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is of Dyscalculia much easier.

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And that doesn't mean that you have to have strong visual spatial skills.

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It just means that if a student has weaker visual spatial skills or working memory, if you're

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looking at a neuropsych evaluation, you want to look at visual spatial skills, working

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memory skills and executive function skills.

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And the stronger those areas are, the faster the accommodations are going to make sense and

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the more success a student is going to have, quickly.

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And if we have lower skills in those areas, then we just want to add in a few more accommodations

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especially extended time, especially direct instruction and avoiding some of the problem-solving

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lessons or the problem-based learning which is very popular in education right now.

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Nothing wrong with problem-based learning and discovery-based learning.

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Those are great tools that we have to get students engaged and excited.

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However, for neurodiverse students sometimes that discovery piece can be a little more

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difficult because what are you supposed to discover and how do you know if you found

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it?

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So for educators, if you're using a lot of those types of lessons, make sure you're doing

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bridge building with students who have learning challenges because they might not be building

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the bridge you want on their own or they might not be sure what kind of bridge they're

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supposed to be building in their knowledge as they're doing this discovery-based learning.

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So just help them out.

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But it's great to have these conversations I've had people ask for the links to different

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research articles I talk about in the podcast.

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I'm happy to share those with you.

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If you have a copy of my book teaching students with Dyscalculia, there's tons of references

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in the back of that book.

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You can get that at Amazon or at your local bookstore, definitely support your local book

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stores, especially the independent bookstore owners.

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You can also get it on Kindle and still have access to all of those references or reach

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out to me and I'm happy to share them with you.

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I also had a really great conversation with Dr. Sandra Elliott at TouchMath and many of

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you are probably familiar with the TouchMath program.

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And if you visit their website, they're going to explain their work much better than

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I can.

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But basically TouchMath is a way to support the understanding of numeracy to support counting

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and adding skills and to use a tactile interaction basically to strengthen that.

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And we know that counting on fingers and using our fingers to count and having that tactile

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touch-based process while we're counting and thinking about numbers is shown to increase

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neurological connections and understanding and strengthen numeracy.

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Dr. Elliott and I had a great conversation about Dyscalculia, about the growing interest

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across the K-12 landscape, and how we can support each other in getting more information

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out there.

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One of their new products, I guess we could say, it is free.

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So I hate to call it a product, but one of their things they have on the market is a

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screener for Dyscalculia.

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And I want to talk about that for a minute.

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I will tell you I'm not affiliated with TouchMath if you go to the website I'm about to

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give you or go to TouchMath itself.

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There's no kickback, this is not an affiliate link.

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Just colleagues sharing information.

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We both have the same angle, which is to bring more awareness and more support to people

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who have Dyscalculia.

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So in that vein, I want to share this Dyscalculia screener because I really enjoyed

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it.

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And I think it's a great tool for people who suspect they are their children or their students.

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Might have Dyscalculia.

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You can take it at any age.

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And it is quick, it's free, and then you get an emailed report about some strengths and

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weaknesses and key indicators that may or may not suggest Dyscalculia for you.

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So the website for that is HTTPS://

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That's a pretty normal setup.

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And the name of the website is D as in Dyscalculia.

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y
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SC.

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So dysc

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Test.

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T-E-S-T dot com.

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So sort of a shortened version of Dyscalculia.

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dysctestcom.

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D-Y-S-C test.

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And again that's not an affiliate, but just go check it out.

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You can really help you understand yourself or your students a little more completely

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in some different areas of number, sense, and basic fact recognition and whether or not

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there is an indication that further testing should be done.

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I know a lot of people struggle with getting referrals for evaluations.

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And our public schools in the US are responsible for that initial testing and screening

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for learning disabilities.

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Beyond the law, and that is federal law, but beyond that, there's also resource allocation

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and it can be difficult for a lot of public schools systems to support the cost of screening

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and then testing.

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And as in many fields, we have a shortage of people trained and able to deliver and read these

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evaluations.

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A neuropsychic eval is not something that can be done by anyone.

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You have to be a trained individual and the people who administer and interpret those tests

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go through a lot of training.

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They really know what they're doing and it's specific information, which is why those

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evaluations are so great.

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I love reading the neuropsych evals because they give a ton of information that help

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us support students quickly and effectively.

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But if you're having trouble getting to that stage, maybe your school is still looking

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at some early interventions, maybe you're in a response to an intervention program, or maybe

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your idea of there being an issue is different from the school or teachers idea of whether

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or not there's an issue, taking a screener like this free one that the people at touch

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math developed can help you have some information.

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You can then take back to the school and make a stronger case for having an evaluation.

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Or you might get a report back that says they're not indicators of Dyscalculia and

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then you can make some decisions based on that.

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Not only not every struggling math student has a learning disability, Dyscalculia is

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very specific and we know it affects somewhere between 8 and 12.

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I like to shoot for 10% of the population.

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But that means there's about 90% of the population who do not have a learning disability,

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even though we know that if we're lucky, half of our students are actually passing that

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and advanced or even competent math level.

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So we know a lot of people struggle, but there's a lot of different reasons for it.

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And finding out more information about what the problem could be will help you and your

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school or as a teacher help you in your class get the best resources and support.

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The other good news in that conversation is that when you look at the appropriate accommodations

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and interventions for Dyscalculia, they're going to help everybody.

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So if you're a teacher and you're trying to figure out how to help your struggling students,

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you don't have to keep reinventing the wheel or have a number of different activities.

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If you can extend the use of a 100-chart, work more with a number line, allow students

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to use a calculator and have worked examples, help them to develop a system of notes or

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a reference sheet that makes sense to them and use those during classwork homework quizzes,

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and if they have a learning disability, also on a test, if you'll put in those accommodations

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and use more direct instruction as your intervention, then everyone is going to get better

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at math and that rising tide will lift all ships.

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Your difference is that people who do not have a learning disability are going to naturally

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move away from those accommodations and interventions.

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Whereas the people who have Dyscalculia are going to need those accommodations, the

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same way, people who wear glasses continue to wear glasses.

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You don't wear glasses for two years and then suddenly you're near or far-sightedness

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has fixed itself.

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You just wear glasses and it's really not a big deal.

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The accommodating students with the learning disability of any kind is also not a big deal.

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I hope that in this new school year we have a lot more conversations about this, we have

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a lot more awareness and shared information.

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I hope we have a lot more classrooms using these accommodations.

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Even if you do not use the same accommodations at your end of your state mandated testing,

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I can tell you from personal experience, I've seen this numerous times.

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You use the right accommodations and interventions and raise everyone's understanding

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throughout the school year.

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Those test scores are going to go up at the end of the year.

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You will see those increases in annual progress that we're all looking for in the classroom.

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If you have questions about any of the things I've talked about today, the Dyscalculia

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 Training and Research Institute as a nonprofit, if you'd like

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to help us get more information into the hands of school psychologists and school counselors,

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please visit thedtri.org or email me.

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If you have information that you need to know, I'm happy to answer questions.

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If you're interested in what we're doing with our math courses which can be used in classrooms,

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I do have some classrooms at private schools and online academies who are using these

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courses in giving students credit for them.

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I'm happy to share the curriculum with you.

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If you have questions about that Dyscalculia Screener, check out DyscTest.com that's

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dySC or look into touch math for more information on that program.

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Let's have a great school year.

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I'm really excited for the things that are coming up.

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I think we're all going to have a great time supporting people of all ages with the

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math learning disability.

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Thank you for listening.

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This is Dr. Honora Wall and you're listening to the what in the world is Dyscalculia

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Podcast.

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See you soon.