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Hello, hello, welcome to the What In The World is Dyscalculia podcast.

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I'm your host, Honora Wall, and today I want to talk about what I call the Dyscalculia

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Trifecta, time, money, and place value.

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These concepts plague people with Dyscalculia for their whole lives.

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They're just really tough.

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And in elementary school, what do you do in second, third, and fourth grade?

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Learn about time, learn about money, and learn about place value.

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So elementary school ends up being a very difficult time for students with this specific

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learning disorder.

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It's also a really tough time for their teachers who are using every instructional strategy

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they can think of and not seeing a lot of results during assessments.

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And for parents who are really worried, especially if this is your oldest child, having these

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difficulties in early elementary school is very unsettling.

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You're not sure what this means for your student.

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It's also hard for the students themselves who are really just defining themselves as

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mathematicians, defining themselves as students.

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They're trying so hard, the work ethic with this population of students is unparalleled.

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And they're just being frustrated at every turn.

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And this is very demoralizing.

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So we start to see, by fourth grade, students who are giving up on math, students who are

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giving up on themselves as learners.

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Students who are giving up on mastering things that seem so easy and so commonly used.

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We talk about time all day and all night.

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We use money, even though most of us are using plastic these days.

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We still talk about how much things cost.

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And in the math class, we use place value for expanded form, for working with decimals,

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for understanding quantity.

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So early elementary can be a really difficult time because of this dyscalculia trifecta.

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The funny thing is once you break away from elementary school math, once you get into

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middle school math and certainly high school math, nobody's asking you to tell time on

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a clock.

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That's not a question that comes up at all.

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And no one is asking you to make change or to think about money.

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Even when we deal with percent of change problems, those are proportions.

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We usually use whole numbers.

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You may use decimals in some of your algebra or geometry questions.

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But most of the time, we want students to focus on the concept.

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So we move away from decimals and fractions.

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And we save those for extension questions once the content has been mastered.

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So a lot of the topics that are holding back students in early elementary, that kind of

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second, third, fourth grade levels, they go away.

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And we're left with students who no longer believe they can succeed in math class, even

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though the expectations are much more aligned with where they can be successful.

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So it's interesting.

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The dyscalculia trifecta stands in the way of students becoming great math students.

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And then it goes away.

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And we're left with students who don't believe they can outperform their past math experiences.

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So if you are a student with dyscalculia or the parent of a student with dyscalculia and

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you're experiencing this, I want you to know that math gets better and that your ability

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to succeed in math is going to be a lot easier.

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So if you can hold out for middle and high school math, I think you're going to have

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a much easier time with those topics.

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You're also going to be required to use a calculator for most of your high school math

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work and quite a good bit of middle school math.

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So if you can hold on to that fact that you're not going to have to memorize basic facts

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forever in order to be a good math student, better days are coming.

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In a perfect world, I would love to see more teachers allow elementary students to either

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use a calculator and I'll talk about why that's important in other podcasts or at least use

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a time tables list or a 1 to 100s chart to help support the adding and subtracting and

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working with decimals that comes up so much in money related questions in particular.

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But let's take a minute and dive into the dyscalculia trifacta and talk about what's

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going on.

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Why is this such a problem for students with dyscalculia?

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So the first thing I want you to think about is the base unit and for people listening

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who are not math teachers, we count in a base 10 system.

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We count with our fingers one through 10 and then we roll over into more than 10.

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But when we're telling time, there are 12 hours on a clock.

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So that's base 12, you get from one o'clock all the way around to 12 o'clock, midnight

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or noon and then you start over again.

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That is true unless we're talking about how many minutes are in an hour.

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Now we have 60 minutes, so that's a base 60.

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You count one second all the way through to 60 seconds and boom, you've rolled into the

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next minute.

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We also have 60 seconds in a minute, but we have 24 hours in one day, seven days in a

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week unless you're looking at a business week, that's five, four weeks in a month, 12 weeks

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in a year.

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All of these are different bases to count in.

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And for any student, that can be a very strange and confusing topic.

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Why is it always different?

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Here on this same issue will rear its ugly head when you get into the United States Customary

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Units of Measurement, which are all over the map.

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The metric system, while it seems more confusing when you first learn it, is very direct and

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it doesn't change units the way U.S. customary measures do.

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We also have this change in units when we're looking at money.

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There's one cent in a penny, five cents in every nickel, 10 cents in a dime, 25 cents

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in a quarter, 100 cents in a dollar, 75 cents in three quarters.

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It's very confusing for students to keep track of these different units and to match them

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visually with what a quarter looks like versus what a dime looks like versus coding that

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vocabulary, spelling those words and sounding them out and knowing what image and what quantity

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they go with.

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And that coding piece is a big problem for students with dyscalculia.

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If you go to my website, educaulclearning.com, you can see some of the different research

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studies this information comes from or feel free to reach out to me directly, hanoraateducaulclearning.com.

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And I'm happy to share the research studies where this information comes from because

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there's some great research out there for those of us who enjoy reading research studies.

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Okay, all of these different base units that we're talking about that flow through time

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and money, they all relate to place value.

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And that can be part of why place value is tricky for any student, but especially students

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with dyscalculia.

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They have to tag that place value concept with our base 10 system so that they can write

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numbers in ones, tens, hundreds, so that they can look at the ordinarity of numbers, which

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digit is in the hundredths place, which digit is in the thousandths place when we get into

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decimals versus whole number place value.

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And then they also have to utilize this concept of changing units with all of these different

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aspects of mathematical topics, time and money, in addition to simply adding, subtracting,

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multiplying and dividing.

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So we squish so much numeracy into second, third and fourth grade.

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It's really a lot for students to try to master.

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Well if that's the problem, then what is the solution?

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The easiest solution, teachers, I strongly recommend that you try this out.

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Let me know if it does not work for you, but I guarantee that it will.

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Here's what I want you to do to help solve this problem.

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I want you to allow your students to use the right support tools while they're working.

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And what this means is that you want to have a place value chart up on the wall, have a

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small place value chart students can use at their desk, have a list with pictures of different

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types of money and their word form and the quantity that they represent and let students

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use that while they're answering money based questions.

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If they don't understand the concept, then the resource and reference sheet will never

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help them.

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If they understand the concept, but they're getting stuck on the base units, then the

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reference sheet is going to let them show you what they know about the concept while

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reducing confusion over terminology.

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I want you to encourage your students to use pictures of clocks labeled with hour and minute

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hands and let them reference those, but make sure they reference those while they're doing

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their work about time.

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See if you can give them a clock where they can manipulate the hands and that will help

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with the last time.

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Of course, that's a problem if you're working with older students because so many of our

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materials are made for beginning learners and older students do not want to use them.

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They're embarrassing.

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So you might try making some on your own or at least getting the least elementary looking

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materials that you can so that your students will use them.

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And teachers, I would tell you don't hand a reference sheet to your student and walk

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away.

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Show them how to use it.

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Make them show you that they're using it for a few problems.

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And if they're getting classwork and homework answers incorrect, make them use their resources

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to correct their work.

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That way we're teaching students the precision and accuracy is what counts.

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More than memory.

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Memory is a great parlor trick.

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And for students who have strong memory skills and who do not have dyscalculia, it helps them

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increase their speed and it helps them increase their confidence.

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For students with this learning disorder, their parietal lobe loses math related information

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and there's nothing they can do about it.

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So they feel that extra frustration of knowing they've learned a concept and now they just

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can't remember what it is.

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So let's show our students that it isn't all about memory.

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It's about accuracy and precision and double checking your work.

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Use reference sheets, use imagery and use tools to help your students get over the hump

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of the dyscalculia trifacta.

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Don't let time, money and place value get in the way of their math success.

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Give them the tools to support themselves in this and all of their future math work.

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So the dyscalculia trifacta, time, money and place value.

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Very tough for students with this specific learning disorder.

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If you have questions or comments or if you need more references, resources or if you'd

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like to talk about your students and some of the issues they're facing, please reach

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out.

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I'm available through Honora at educalclearning.com or check out my website, educalclearning

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and reach me through there or through LinkedIn.

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And I'm looking forward to having a conversation about this with you in the future.

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Thanks for listening.