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

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the math related specific learning disorder.

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I'm Dr. Honora Wall, founder of the Dyscalculia Training and Research Institute.

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You can find out more about us at www.thedtri.org and make sure you check out the free printable

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PDFs.

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We have a one page fact sheet that's great for families, schools and teachers.

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We also have some smaller infographics and brochures for students, parents and teachers.

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They're free.

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Grab them, print them, share them.

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Let's raise awareness together.

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The What in the World is Dyscalculia podcast is sponsored by Educalcl learning and you

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can learn more about our work there at educalclearning.com.

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It's a great resource for students through some online math classes we have for K-12

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students and for teachers.

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We do a lot of training and we have everything from introductory courses to graduate level

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courses if you need those credits for licensing renewal.

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That's where you can get some great information but I want to give you some more information

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today in this podcast.

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I want to talk about how do we help in the classroom?

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What are we supposed to do for students who have dyscalculia?

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This is a huge question right now in education and a lot of states are moving students into

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504 plans for dyscalculia rather than IEPs.

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Some are still using IEPs.

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The difference between those two in a nutshell, there are other differences but our biggest

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one for our purposes is that the IEP requires a different kind of instruction.

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We're saying hey the student needs a different kind of instruction and what does that look

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like?

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What does that mean?

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The 504 focuses more on what accommodations are we offering?

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What accommodations are the student able to use and what are they using consistently and

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what are we going to provide in that way?

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Of course this is a huge problem because the question is what would different instruction

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look like for students with dyscalculia?

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The good news is, it's super easy.

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You've already had a lot of training in it more than likely and it might be different

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than what you're currently using in the classroom but it's very effective, super easy to use.

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What you want to do for a student who has dyscalculia at any grade level, any age is

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you have got to use explicit direct instruction.

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You've got to start with that.

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That can be different from a lot of current schools that are using a lot of project based

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learning and incorporating that idea of exploratory mathematics.

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Certainly, absolutely, project based learning and exploratory mathematics and learning is

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really great at getting a deeper understanding and connection with math concepts and that

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can be very effective and very fun for pretty much all students except not if they have

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dyscalculia.

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Of course that is a hallmark of the math learning disorder, isn't it?

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The interventions we're already using are great for most people but not for these students.

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The accommodations we're used to offering are fantastic for almost all students except

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not for these students and that's really our difference.

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The things that work to help students with dyscalculia will also help everyone else but

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the reverse is not true.

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Things that help most other students are not going to be effective for your students with

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dyscalculia.

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Does that mean I want you to abandon project based learning?

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No, of course not.

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Does that mean we cannot offer more enriching discussions for students with dyscalculia?

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Lord, no!

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That is absolutely opposite of what I am telling you.

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What I am telling you is that if you start with project based learning or exploratory

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mathematics, students with dyscalculia are likely to remain frustrated.

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They're not going to get to that conceptual understanding you're looking for because they

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can't keep up with what's going on.

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They're not sure what you mean and even if they know what you meant, they're not sure

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what they're supposed to actually do.

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None of that is on the test Friday so it's not helping them move their grade and that's

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where they're still staying disconnected.

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If you can start with direct instruction, very explicit, this is exactly what we do.

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Don't be afraid of the algorithms.

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Why are we afraid now of steps and procedures?

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There's nothing wrong with them.

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That's how you do it.

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Let the students get mastery and in my experience, it hasn't failed me yet.

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I've been doing this a long time with students who have dyscalculia.

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Once we get mastery and they know how to do it and they're doing it right, now they are

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open to the conceptual conversation.

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Now they will do some project based learning.

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Now they're ready to play some games.

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Now they're going to talk about real life applications because they got that mastery

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first and they can apply what to do into these new enriching, interesting situations.

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But you've got to start with direct instruction.

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You have to be exceptionally clear.

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You cannot skip steps.

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You cannot say, oh and then we divided by one half.

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No, no, no.

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You have to write down what that looks like and the steps of how that has to happen.

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You want the memory trigger.

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You want the visual progression.

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You want everything labeled.

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If you're using color, fantastic.

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You're going to have a lot more engagement and the brain understands how and where to

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file things.

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What is different and unique about this part because it's in red?

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Oh, okay.

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That's a step that I need to follow.

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All of that coding and those triggers you can build in while you're doing that direct

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instruction.

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Don't make any leaps in the conversation.

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Don't assume, oh everyone knows that this part we're subtracting five.

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No they don't.

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You've got to say what you're doing.

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Even when you're using those steps and procedures for higher level math, we have a few steps

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going on and we want to get through writing this problem out quickly.

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We have things to do.

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You need to add in those steps.

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You cannot make those assumptions.

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Make sure that everyone in the room sees exactly what's going on and that you state

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exactly what you're doing.

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And then check in with the students during the lesson.

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Are they verifying their work?

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Either with a multiplication list, not the chart.

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Or with the calculator.

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You know I'm a huge fan of the TI 30XA.

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Cost about 12 to 15 bucks.

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You can get it anywhere.

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It will take you from fifth grade math through algebra 2 and quite a few calculations.

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It's really a fantastic tool and it's easy for students to operate once you show them

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exactly how.

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It doesn't have to come with a huge manual.

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You're not moving between screens.

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You're not pulling up different menu items.

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We know that people with dyscalculia struggle with steps and procedures.

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So why would we give them a calculator that requires extra steps and procedures?

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It's kind of counterintuitive.

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So give them a calculator that makes sense.

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Or up to fourth slash fifth grade.

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I really like having the multiplication list.

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You're going to use that for so many things.

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I'm going to do an episode where we talk about exactly how to use it.

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But it's a great tool.

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But you're going to make sure that you ask them.

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Okay.

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I want you to put negative 5 minus 8 in the calculator.

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Tell me what you get.

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Based on their answer you're going to know are they putting the signs in correctly.

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Is the calculator understanding the steps that they want to do or do you need to come

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over and say okay hang on let's make sure we've got the order of the buttons properly

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laid out.

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Let me make sure we're doing that the right way.

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Go through a couple of problems with them.

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Let's try negative 7 minus 3.

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Let's try negative 7 plus negative 3.

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Get the buttons figured out.

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When they know okay if I do this and I do this and I do this now I can trust my answer.

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Perfect.

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Now we can move forward.

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Now we're getting through all of the assigned classwork and homework which is appropriate

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for these students.

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They do not need a modification.

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No modification required for students with dyscalculia.

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Accommodations.

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Yes.

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Correct support tools.

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Yes.

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Modification.

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No.

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This is entirely different and inappropriate for this population of students.

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Once they've got the right answer and they're getting the work done and now they're keeping

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up with everyone and they're feeling really good about things now you can start talking

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about why do we even have integers.

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Well we can talk about deep sea diving.

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We can talk about banking and finance.

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Now we can talk about all the different areas in life where you may or may not have negative

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numbers.

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It does not apply to distance.

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So now we can get that enrichment piece and when we introduce project based learning there's

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an anchor for the student.

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They know the math is going to work and now they can trust the exploration.

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You've got to do it in that order.

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You've got to use scaffolding.

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You've got to use direct instruction.

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Plug that in to your classrooms.

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Give it a little more than you're already doing.

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More direct.

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More scaffolding.

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More mastery.

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Then your students will be happy to come along with you on your project based learning journey.

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Okay.

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That was some very quick information for you about how to instruct differently for students

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with dyscalculia.

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Very easy to implement.

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You don't have to buy anything new.

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You don't have to do anything entirely different from what you're comfortable with.

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You will see almost immediate results.

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If you don't, you can email me.

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Honora at educalclearning.com or Honora at thedtri.org.

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I'm happy to talk with you and help you solve some of the problems in your classroom.

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But you're probably going to email me and say, wow, I cannot believe it.

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I did not think that was going to work.

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It worked right away because it's an exceptionally effective tool.

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Thank you very much for listening to this episode of What in the World is dyscalculia.

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I hope that you are engaged with the growing community of dyscalculia experts.

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It's really nice to see our little redheaded stepchild of a learning disorder getting some

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recognition and awareness.

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You play a key role in spreading that awareness even farther.

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So thank you for being part of the journey.

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I'm Dr. Honora Wall, and I'll see you next time on What in the World is dyscalculia.