Hello and welcome to What in the World is Dyscalculia, the podcast that is all
about the math related specific learning disorder. I'm Dr. Honora Wall and I'm the
host of our podcast which is sponsored by Educalc Learning and you can find more
about Dyscalculia at educalclearning.com and the different services that
we provide for people of all ages with Dyscalculia. You can also visit
www.thedtri.org that is a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness,
understanding, and changing the lived experiences of people with Dyscalculia.
Making them better, more confident in their math abilities and removing the
barriers to math success. And in today's podcast I want to talk about one
potential barrier that is popping up in a lot of states right now due to the
movement many states are going with for offering vouchers for students to attend
private schools. Depending on your state this may not apply to you, it may apply
very much in the state where you live. But in general there are some things about
vouchers that I want you to know because they do relate to students with
learning disabilities especially Dyscalculia. Now there are many reasons why
a family might want to use a voucher or want to send their child to a private
school whether it's a religious school or just an independent school, a small
private school in their area, etc. And those are family choices and they're
valid choices and having a voucher option can make it more affordable for
families to do so. Before you jump in and leave a public school and use a voucher
to go into a private school I just want you to be aware of a key difference. And
that difference is that private schools are not held to the same legality as
public schools. Now I know more than most of you are having a very hard time
getting the appropriate services from your public schools so just going to a
public school does not mean you're getting the right kind of instruction
which should be explicit, the right kind of assessments which means they are
directly aligned to the teaching material. They're not heavily weighed
outside assessments made by a district or a company that doesn't always relate
to the classroom. And you may not be getting the right accommodations which
include using notes and references during assessments as memory triggers to help
guide the parietal lobe which loses math information over time and using things
like a multiplication list or a calculator during assessments. I know that's a
struggle but going into a private school can make it more of a struggle partly
because like I said private schools have different regulations, different things
that they have to follow, and things they don't have to follow, and they have
different capacities. A lot of times private schools tend to be smaller or
have different staffing than a public school. Now I know more than most of you
are having a hard time getting staffing for your students with learning
disabilities so again we don't have a perfect solution anywhere right now but
a private school tends to have less in the way of resources, staffing, and
ability and it might not be part of their mission. So they might just not be
aware of or interested in giving the kind of accommodations that students
with learning differences need. If you're thinking about going into a private
school for any reason I just want you to have a conversation with them upfront in
the beginning before you sign paperwork and before you transfer your student and
especially before you get excited about using a voucher. You need to know what
your options are at the school that you're thinking up and the only way to
know that is to have an honest conversation. Are they aware of
dyscalculia? Have they had training in it? What accommodations do they offer and
what do they offer on paper as far as an IEP or 504 is concerned and is that
backed up in the classroom? And this is not an indictment on all private
schools. I have some students at private schools that bend over backwards for
their students and the students are thriving and doing very very well in
their upper-level math and science courses because the school is open to
accommodating their differences in their learning understanding and memory
when it comes to math. I have some students in public schools that are
doing a great job at accommodating and those students are succeeding. I also
know of most students who are not. They don't have the right services. They have
some services but they're not appropriate for dyscalculia or they have
limited services for a variety of reasons and the family thought they were
getting into a better situation and it's just become worse. So since vouchers
are expanding in many states and since a movement into private schools is
expanding in many states I want you to know what kind of questions to ask
before you decide on what is the best education option for your student. If
you're talking to a school and they haven't heard of dyscalculia or they're
interested in it and they want to help your child succeed you can send them to
the DTRI.org website. You can send them to the LDA Learning Disabilities
Association of America website or the one for your specific state. You can send
them to understood.org. You can check with a local psychologist and see if they
have some recommendations and just trying to get those specifics worked out. We
want explicit instruction. We want worked examples and notes during assessments. We
want to be able to use those external support tools depending on grade level.
That could be a one to one hundreds chart multiplication list or calculator and
know that students are going to need some extra support understanding how to use
those tools. It's not intuitive which really is what dyscalculia is all about.
Learning math is not intuitive in the same way that it is for neurotypical
students. So these are some of the conversations I want you to have and
there are resources. There's a growing body of research. No it's not as much as
dyslexia but we're out here. We're talking about it and your school can find
the right resources. They can email me directly and I'm happy to just have a
conversation and send them some research articles and there are a few other
experts in the US who will happily do the same thing. We want students to have
the right support. We don't care where you get it from or how you implement it as
long as you're doing it according to the research and best practices around
dyscalculia. So everything I've been mentioning in this and other podcasts
comes from published research both qualitative and quantitative in the
fields of education psychology and neurology. So that's another thing that
a school or an interested teacher can do. You don't have to take my word for
anything. Go to Google Scholar look up these research articles yourself. We'll
be adding more links to research articles on the DTRI.org website in the
coming year so that it's easier to find some of the published research and it's
more accessible but it's still easy to find it. I found plenty for my
dissertation when I was doing my literature review. It was a very hefty
literature review so I know the research is out there and I know you can find it
on Google Scholar. You could probably also find it if you email some
researchers directly. Most researchers are happy to have you read their
research and discuss their findings. So a lot of times they'll email you their
articles directly or have a discussion with you about their study and what
they found. So you have lots of different avenues to find different
information, lots of resources to share with your teacher, your school, your
district, getting the awareness out there and keep in mind when you move to any
new school. Maybe you want to use a voucher. Maybe you're looking at a private
school in your area. Maybe you're moving to a new town or a new state or you're
transitioning from elementary to middle or middle to high school. All of those
situations can put you in contact with someone who's never heard of
dyscalculia or they just don't know enough about it. They've heard the word
but they don't really know what it means or what to do. All right let's get the
awareness out there. Share some of the things I've talked about in this podcast.
Use those links that I've shared with you, those different websites and let's
get that conversation going. Just make sure you know what kind of
accommodations your student needs and make sure that a school is willing to
give them to your child and that the teacher understands and is going to back
that up. When we have the right accommodations in place, students with
dyscalculia do a fantastic job of succeeding at grade level math. I've
seen this literally with hundreds of students over many many many years of
working directly with people who have dyscalculia of all ages. So having this
particular type of neurodivergence does not have to hold a person back from
succeeding in math. I know for most of you it has and that is very unfortunate
and something I hope to help you change. But that was more about the system you
were in, not about your abilities or your capabilities. Okay so be very careful
when you're changing schools. Be ready to have those awareness discussions. If
you are in a state that is really pushing for more vouchers, be aware that
private schools are not typically set up to accommodate and offer services in the
same way as a public school is. They might be so ask make sure you're getting
those questions in and getting some answers and writing before you make any
choices. I'm Dr. Honora Wall. I appreciate you listening to the What in the
World is Dyscalculia podcast. If you have any questions or comments please
reach out to me Honora H-O-N-O-R-A at educalcallearning dot com or reach
me at the nonprofit at the d-t-r-i dot org. And thanks for listening. We will have
another podcast episode soon. Have a great day!