1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,400 Hello and welcome to the What in the World is Dyscalculia podcast presented by Educalc 2 00:00:07,400 --> 00:00:14,480 Learning and I am your host Dr. Honora Wall and I'm talking to you today and recording 3 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:21,480 this podcast from a special education educator conference in Wisconsin. 4 00:00:21,480 --> 00:00:22,480 It's a really great conference. 5 00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:29,860 I have pages of notes from both this conference and my last one in Iowa of things that I need 6 00:00:29,860 --> 00:00:35,080 to get into this podcast so I need to get some episodes recorded but I wanted to be 7 00:00:35,080 --> 00:00:43,360 Dyscalculia adjacent today and talk a little bit about anxiety, specifically generalized 8 00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:49,640 anxiety disorder and where we have comorbidity with Dyscalculia and one of the reasons why 9 00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:53,320 I'm doing this I just had such an exciting experience at the conference. 10 00:00:53,320 --> 00:01:00,800 I was going to an afternoon session about working with students who have anxiety, especially 11 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:06,920 generalized anxiety disorder and usually at these conferences your breakout rooms have 12 00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:13,620 about 15 maybe 30 people at a really well attended session. 13 00:01:13,620 --> 00:01:19,920 You can have as few as 8 people and still have a robust conversation in a session. 14 00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:25,660 So that's what I was expecting going into the anxiety room. 15 00:01:25,660 --> 00:01:31,760 I'm not kidding when I tell you there were 80 people in chairs and another 20 sitting 16 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:35,440 on the floor along the side wall or standing in the back. 17 00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:39,720 It was jam packed and the presenter was great. 18 00:01:39,720 --> 00:01:45,200 I did not stay for the whole session because I could practically write my own session about 19 00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:50,240 generalized anxiety disorder from working with students and family members and I have 20 00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:59,760 a well rounded set of experiences and knowledge about generalized anxiety disorder. 21 00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:05,080 But I was so excited to see how many other people were in the room and really digging 22 00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:16,800 into the ways anxiety literally physically chemically blocks learning blocks recall blocks moving 23 00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:24,560 information from short term to long term memory blocks the coding in a neurological sense 24 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:30,520 between information and where we store information in the brain. 25 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:36,080 Really the implications for educators are huge and it's so misunderstood and becoming 26 00:02:36,080 --> 00:02:41,800 so common there's such an increase in people who are diagnosed with a generalized anxiety 27 00:02:41,800 --> 00:02:47,800 disorder or who have such high anxiety that it impacts their daily life. 28 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:53,840 So I was very encouraged to see more people really getting into this and talking about 29 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:58,240 the impact in an educational framework. 30 00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:06,240 Of course the quality of life impact is also huge and for students school makes up most 31 00:03:06,240 --> 00:03:09,720 of their quality of life takes up their whole day. 32 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:12,600 So it's a really important conversation. 33 00:03:12,600 --> 00:03:17,200 So how does this intersect with our math learning disability. 34 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:22,040 Well first of all you can be comorbid which just means you have more than one diagnosis 35 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:30,360 so you could be diagnosed with both dyscalculia and a generalized anxiety disorder or anything 36 00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:38,120 else or you could just have dyscalculia but have anxiety around math and math performance 37 00:03:38,120 --> 00:03:46,960 but not have this to the severity and consistency of a generalized anxiety disorder. 38 00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:51,320 Now for students in the classroom tomato tomato if you're very anxious if you're having 39 00:03:51,320 --> 00:03:59,320 test or performance anxiety or specifically math anxiety or if you just have anxiety all 40 00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:05,080 the time with a generalized anxiety disorder your experience is pretty much the same. 41 00:04:05,080 --> 00:04:12,400 It's misery it's impactful it's hard to focus it's hard to retain information you feel like 42 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:18,720 you're under attack physically that's how it feels a lot of time in the mind. 43 00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:26,880 So we can have both we can have a lot of overlap they do not come from the same place so you 44 00:04:26,880 --> 00:04:32,600 can have a generalized anxiety disorder and not have any other diagnosis. 45 00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:43,080 You can also have dyscalculia and not have a long term chronic anxiety condition but 46 00:04:43,080 --> 00:04:48,560 you can develop anxiety over time through having a lot of negative experiences and that's 47 00:04:48,560 --> 00:04:54,160 very common with students who have dyscalculia they have years and years and years of trying 48 00:04:54,160 --> 00:05:01,000 of working hard of doing extra homework pushing through tears at night lots of tutors begging 49 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:09,280 for help and not getting anywhere and that can create a very anxious response regardless 50 00:05:09,280 --> 00:05:11,360 of any other diagnosis. 51 00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:18,560 So whichever diagnosis you may or may not have understanding anxiety is a big part of 52 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:24,080 working with people who have dyscalculia and if that is you it's a big part of understanding 53 00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:31,200 yourself as a learner and understanding how you can better support yourself in those anxiety 54 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:39,040 producing circumstances which math class certainly falls in that category for most people. 55 00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:45,680 So then the question is what can you do and that's a huge question to answer. 56 00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:50,400 There are a lot of resources out there I encourage you to do a lot of googling and searching 57 00:05:50,400 --> 00:05:53,880 and reading more about anxiety. 58 00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:59,160 I can only scratch the surface in this podcast but I do want to let you know that anxiety 59 00:05:59,160 --> 00:06:02,520 is a physical response. 60 00:06:02,520 --> 00:06:07,680 There are chemical interactions that happen in the brain and in the body the release 61 00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:15,640 of cortisol which is very dangerous the release of a lot of the negative chemicals that have 62 00:06:15,640 --> 00:06:21,640 their place but at an overwhelming amount can be damaging. 63 00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:25,200 Cortisol is a big one, adrenaline is a big one if you keep having that adrenaline rush 64 00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:30,360 from a fight, flight or freeze response then your body has to absorb all of those chemicals 65 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:32,160 back in later. 66 00:06:32,160 --> 00:06:38,240 It's very important to have some kind of an outlet whether that is journaling, therapy 67 00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:43,360 would be great, meditation, yoga practice, playing some other kind of sport that works 68 00:06:43,360 --> 00:06:50,200 best for you, a hobby that helps you relax so that you can have some down time so that 69 00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:56,720 your heart rate can slow down, your blood pressure can go down and you can release some of those 70 00:06:56,720 --> 00:07:01,560 chemicals that have built up from the anxiety response. 71 00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:03,680 That's really, really important. 72 00:07:03,680 --> 00:07:10,160 Sorry if someone is sneezing in the hallway but hopefully they walk on. 73 00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:14,160 So hopefully that gave a little humor if you can find humor as a way to help you diffuse 74 00:07:14,160 --> 00:07:17,560 your anxiety response that's helpful too. 75 00:07:17,560 --> 00:07:20,440 But that's important not just to make you feel better. 76 00:07:20,440 --> 00:07:23,480 I think it's important enough to feel better. 77 00:07:23,480 --> 00:07:28,240 We're supposed to have an enjoyable life experience but that should stand on its own. 78 00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:33,000 And outside of just that it's important that you manage those emotions and that chemical 79 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:39,960 response because the build up over time can have some very serious health consequences 80 00:07:39,960 --> 00:07:43,840 if you're not managing your anxiety response. 81 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:51,560 Also it gets in the way of, like I said, memory, recall, learning information, being present 82 00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:56,280 in a situation so that you can understand what's happening, so that you can understand 83 00:07:56,280 --> 00:08:03,600 new content, so that you are getting the information, putting it into notes, being able to find 84 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:06,880 it later, doing independent work on your own. 85 00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:12,000 If you're in the middle of an anxiety response, a heightened anxiety situation, none of those 86 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:14,120 things are going to happen. 87 00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:18,440 And if you are an educator listening to the podcast then you definitely want to be aware 88 00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:23,080 of how you can reduce anxiety in your classroom. 89 00:08:23,080 --> 00:08:28,880 A lot of it is tone of voice, a lot of it is not putting people on the spot, not making 90 00:08:28,880 --> 00:08:33,400 people feel badly about whether or not they remember the answer to the question you're 91 00:08:33,400 --> 00:08:34,400 asking. 92 00:08:34,400 --> 00:08:38,960 There are so many ways we can do quick check ins with students to make sure they're paying 93 00:08:38,960 --> 00:08:41,680 attention, to make sure they understand the lesson. 94 00:08:41,680 --> 00:08:45,680 And it doesn't have to be accusatory, it doesn't have to be negative, it could be something 95 00:08:45,680 --> 00:08:49,400 like, okay I need to answer this question. 96 00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:54,240 Jim, grab your calculator, put this in the calculator, tell me what you got. 97 00:08:54,240 --> 00:08:58,880 Sally, I want you to go to the notes we took yesterday, see if you have this definition 98 00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:00,120 in your notes. 99 00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:04,760 If you can find it, read it to me, if not, let's take a minute and make sure we add it 100 00:09:04,760 --> 00:09:06,320 into your notes. 101 00:09:06,320 --> 00:09:10,360 You've met the objective of checking in with your students, you've met the objective of 102 00:09:10,360 --> 00:09:15,720 having them engage in the lesson, but you didn't put them on the spot, you didn't expose 103 00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:22,640 anyone and in that way you can really manage someone's experience in the class. 104 00:09:22,640 --> 00:09:28,400 There are a lot of other things to know about anxiety when we look at assessments. 105 00:09:28,400 --> 00:09:33,640 You might want to make sure that students who seem to have an anxiety response or who 106 00:09:33,640 --> 00:09:40,360 you know have an anxiety disorder, let them have notes, let them have a worked example. 107 00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:45,200 Spend a few minutes before you give a test, just welcoming everyone to the class, doing 108 00:09:45,200 --> 00:09:48,880 a few little deep breaths, kind of acclimating. 109 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:53,040 Remember everyone, today's test is going to be about this topic, you're going to watch 110 00:09:53,040 --> 00:09:57,000 for this, that's the common mistake, you want to avoid that. 111 00:09:57,000 --> 00:10:00,440 Remember we're going to have word problems at the end and they're all going to be about 112 00:10:00,440 --> 00:10:03,360 this, this and this. 113 00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:07,480 That way you've set the tone, you kind of let everyone settle in and you'd be amazed 114 00:10:07,480 --> 00:10:12,400 how much that can help reduce an anxiety response for people. 115 00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:18,960 Now of course if your student or you yourself is in the middle of a heightened anxiety response, 116 00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:22,320 hopefully you have a plan in place where you can leave the room. 117 00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:27,880 You can go to a nurse's office, you can go to the counselor's office, you can just go 118 00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:33,920 outside of the situation and have a place to decompress for a minute and remove yourself 119 00:10:33,920 --> 00:10:36,160 from the situation. 120 00:10:36,160 --> 00:10:40,040 That's very important in managing an anxiety response. 121 00:10:40,040 --> 00:10:45,440 So these are just very surface level things that are easy for anyone to implement in any 122 00:10:45,440 --> 00:10:53,800 situation but have a huge impact for students and for students as people, not just students 123 00:10:53,800 --> 00:10:55,760 as learners. 124 00:10:55,760 --> 00:11:00,920 This podcast we usually direct things to educators so of course we're also thinking about their 125 00:11:00,920 --> 00:11:05,640 education, what are they getting from our class and they're not going to get anything 126 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:14,840 if we're not helping to manage their stress and helping them to recognize, hopefully avoid 127 00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:20,200 or at least manage or recover from an anxious experience. 128 00:11:20,200 --> 00:11:26,400 I'll put some more information about this on the educalclearning.com website in the 129 00:11:26,400 --> 00:11:35,920 next few weeks and on our non-profit website, the DTRI.org so that we can get some more 130 00:11:35,920 --> 00:11:36,920 information out. 131 00:11:36,920 --> 00:11:42,520 I'm going to run back in the room and get the speaker's information and I will share 132 00:11:42,520 --> 00:11:43,760 that also. 133 00:11:43,760 --> 00:11:49,200 If you're on Facebook, find us on Facebook, educaulclearning has a Facebook page and 134 00:11:49,200 --> 00:11:54,520 we've started a public group, the teachers discalculia support group. 135 00:11:54,520 --> 00:12:00,320 Please join us, that's really for educators to share resources, ideas, success stories 136 00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:07,200 and to talk with other teachers about students who have discalculia and how we can help. 137 00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:14,240 If you have any questions or comments for me, please email me, honora at educalclearning.com 138 00:12:14,240 --> 00:12:21,000 that's H-O-N-O-R-A or find our website, find me on Facebook. 139 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:25,440 We're in the process of putting together some TikTok videos so we're entering a brave new 140 00:12:25,440 --> 00:12:30,840 world of social media and I would love to have you be a part of that journey and let 141 00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:36,080 me know what kind of questions you have so that I can help you answer them in the best 142 00:12:36,080 --> 00:12:38,000 way possible. 143 00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:43,120 This is Dr. Honora Wall and I appreciate you being a part of this conversation. 144 00:12:43,120 --> 00:12:48,120 Thank you for listening to What in the World is Discalculia and I will speak with you again 145 00:12:48,120 --> 00:12:51,120 soon.