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Hello and welcome to What in the World is Dyscalculia, the podcast that is all about

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the math learning disability.

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I'm your host, Dr. Honora Wall.

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And What in the World is Dyscalculia is sponsored by EduCalc Learning.

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You can learn more about Dyscalculia at educalclearning.com.

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And I encourage you also to visit www.thedtri.org, the Dyscalculia Training and Research Institute,

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which is a non-profit that is dedicated to promoting awareness and understanding and

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hopefully soon research into the math learning disability.

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We've got some free brochures for students and some infographics for teachers and parents

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on that website and you can feel free to grab those, download them, share them so that we

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get the awareness out there.

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Now in today's episode I wanted to talk about the strangest accommodation for Dyscalculia

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that I think I have ever heard.

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I'm not going to call out the state that is currently using this accommodation because

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I just heard about it so I don't know if it is district specific or if it is statewide.

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And until I learn more, no sense putting out misinformation.

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Here's what I do know.

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I have a student in elementary school with a Dyscalculia diagnosis and her accommodation

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that she's allowed to use for state testing is an abacus.

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Now an abacus is a great tool and I think it's a wonderful enrichment activity but for

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an accommodation that really makes me question the usefulness of this tool.

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Partly because I don't know how a student is supposed to use an abacus and get through

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the number of questions that would be included in a very long and involved state test.

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I also don't know of any student of any age who wants to lift a large, heavy, loud, clanging,

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colorful wooden bead abacus and put it on their desk in a classroom full of their peers.

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So it might have been great for a Tang Dynasty tax collector but I'm not sure it's such

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a good idea for a third grader who's trying to take a test in a room full of other students.

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So sometimes a tool is a great benefit but that doesn't make it a great accommodation.

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We have to include all of the students experience when we're choosing accommodations and the

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correct accommodations for Dyscalculia really involve using tactile methods of counting,

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counting on their fingers, counting with objects, counting with a program like TouchMath.

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Some people like using a 10 blocks or the 1 unit blocks while they're counting, adding

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and subtracting.

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And then as students progress in age and in grade level, letting them use a 1 to 100 chart,

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letting them use a multiplication list, letting them use a calculator.

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These are appropriate tools at different stages of math understanding, math development, and

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really give students the space to in the classroom focus on the lesson and then confirm their

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basic fact answers.

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There's a number of ways you can use these without them being a crutch or replacing understanding

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how to add, subtract, multiply, or divide.

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And I'll briefly talk about those.

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In early childhood education and early elementary school, we're still building our

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approximate number system.

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We're still building an understanding of what counting is, what combining numbers is,

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through adding or subtracting.

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And we need to reinforce that through as many tactile external concrete experiences as possible.

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If every early elementary and early childhood program threw out their worksheets and let

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students do everything by hand, I think that I could reasonably retire by the time today's

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third graders got out of college because we could avoid a lot of the problems that happen

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to students with dyscalculia when we give them the extra time to develop that internal

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skill and that understanding through external tactile means.

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Once we get into third grade, the number of topics we're putting into the school year

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and the number of problems we expect students to solve, it's just not really feasible to

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do that work with those ineffective or sometimes called immature, those different methods of

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combining things.

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That's why we need to move on to the 1 to 100 chart, the multiplication list, those old-fashioned

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time staples, and then by the end of third grade and above, using a calculator.

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You can still have students add, subtract, multiply or divide one place value digit at

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a time.

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They don't have to put the whole problem into the calculator.

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You can still have them practice the algorithm of carrying and borrowing and multiplying

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multiple digits or doing long division, but they can focus on that algorithm, those steps

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and procedures, while using a tool to check those basic facts.

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That way they're still getting the answer right.

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They're still getting the problem solved.

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They're still getting through their work.

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It's still going to take them longer than students without dyscalculia.

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Now what if you have students who don't truly have a learning disability that just have

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low numeracy or a weak foundation or something else that's kept them from progressing?

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Well, they're going to move along, memorize their basic facts, strengthen that retrieval,

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and they're going to move away from using the accommodations.

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Let that happen at the student's time.

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Now the students who have a math learning disability are not going to move away from

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those accommodations.

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And as we get past fourth grade, we really want to keep the multiplication list because

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you can use that to multiply, divide, list factors, list multiples, simplify fractions,

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write fractions with like denominators so that you can add and subtract them.

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There's a ton of work we get out of that multiplication list.

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And then we also want to use a calculator.

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It's not made of lava, folks.

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It's just a technology tool.

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Now in our current school system, we have a lot of students who have to learn how to

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do coding at a very early age.

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This is considered an enrichment activity.

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It does not make sense to think that students are capable and should be excited about computer

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programming software, oh, and also not be allowed to touch a calculator, a basic four

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operation, or a TIX 30A, inexpensive, easy to use.

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These are just tools.

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Let's give students the right tools to use to support their work.

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And let's not be afraid of that.

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Let's think about our internal bias, what we think math learning should look like.

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And what do we do for students who learn differently and perform math differently?

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That's really an us problem, not a them problem.

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So I guess to wrap up a lot of this talk about accommodations.

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There's some great research that's already published and out there about increasing tactile

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concrete external experiences for counting that are very beneficial for younger students.

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An excellent tool for early intervention.

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Let's also be aware that as students get older, and I'm talking by third grade, they're

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very well aware if they are different from the other kids in the class or not.

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We don't want to keep exposing them and have their weaknesses exposed.

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They're not going to use their accommodations if they feel embarrassed.

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And then they're not going to learn.

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And that's truly our end result, is to help students learn math.

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So let's focus on that end goal.

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And let's make sure that our accommodations match the work that is happening.

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And what I mean by that is if we're going through a lot of topics in a short amount of

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time, or if we expect students to answer a large number of problems, which students with

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dyscalculia are completely capable of doing, they just need more time, then let's give

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them the tools to make those goals and objectives get met in a timely fashion.

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Let's also remember that as math progresses, we're focusing more on the problem solving

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concepts, steps, and procedures, and the rules of how we work to solve math problems.

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So the days of basic fact memorization should be behind us.

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That doesn't mean that the current work should be behind our students.

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It just means they should use the right tool to help them get that work done.

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So analyze your accommodations, see what you're offering students, and really think about what

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objectives are those accommodations meeting.

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And for students with dyscalculia, the accommodations are there to help support the fact that their

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parietal lobe loses math information over time.

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This includes basic fact retrieval, and it includes problems with remembering steps and

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procedures and place value and all the things we talk about in the different episodes.

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Okay, that wraps up this podcast, but I encourage you to visit educalclearning.com or the dtri.org

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for more information.

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You can email me, honora@educalclearning.com.

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You can also find me through honora@thedtri.org, and I'm happy to get you some more information

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about the math learning disability dyscalculia so that you can support your students, your

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children, and yourself.

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Thank you for listening to What in the World is Dyscalculia.

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I'm Dr. Wall, and I will see you again soon.