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Math disabilities hold many students back. Schools often don't screen for them
phys.org ^ | 10/17/2023

Posted on 10/17/2023 6:48:00 AM PDT by devane617

Laura Jackson became seriously concerned about her daughter and math when the girl was in third grade. While many of her classmates flew through multiplication tests, Jackson's daughter relied on her fingers to count, had difficulty reading clocks and burst into tears when asked at home to practice math flashcards.

At school, the 9-year-old had been receiving help from a math specialist for two years, with little improvement.

"We hit a point where she was asking me, 'Mom, am I stupid?'" Jackson recalled.

One day, when having lunch with a friend, Jackson heard about a disorder known as dyscalculia. She later looked up a description of the learning disability that impacts a child's ability to process numbers and retain math knowledge. "I was like, 'Oh my gosh, this is my kid,'" Jackson said.

Nationwide, hundreds of thousands of students face challenges learning math due to disabilities like dyscalculia, a neurodevelopmental learning disorder caused by differences in parts of the brain that are involved with numbers and calculations. There are often obstacles to getting help.

(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: disability; education; learning; math
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To: CodeToad

I personally meet a women who has been teaching Junior H.S. math for 10 years. In our conversation I mentioned that in first grade (1960) we were shown how to use an abacus to learn numbers. She did not know what an abacus was!


21 posted on 10/17/2023 7:17:28 AM PDT by MCF (If my home can't be my Castle, then it will be my Alamo)
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To: devane617
No, it's a thing for real. I've seen it and classic dyslexia too.

If you watch more than, “Did she get the right answer?” and look for a pattern in the mistakes, sometimes it's easy to spot.

It seems there is a real neuro difference. The good news is the brain is somewhat plastic, and the earlier these things are caught, the easier it is to do the laborious work of rewiring.

What's frustrating is to see neuro differences but havee parents who think mere behavior mod (aka “discipline”) will solve it.

22 posted on 10/17/2023 7:17:33 AM PDT by Mad Dawg (Sta, si cum canibus magnis currere non potes, in portico. )
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To: Red Badger

Dis, Dat and the Udder Ting


23 posted on 10/17/2023 7:19:53 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: mewzilla

Check her home for lead paint and pipes.


24 posted on 10/17/2023 7:23:13 AM PDT by DownInFlames (P)
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To: devane617

Japanese parents chuckle


25 posted on 10/17/2023 7:23:17 AM PDT by Vaduz (....)
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To: House Atreides

Oh, boy…. it’s called low-IQ and every generation has a percentage of the population in that category. Unfortunately I fear that percentage is rapidly INCREASING.


Does this mean I have job security? Seriously, though, I don’t think we’ve seen anything close to the worst of consequences of indoctrination vs. education.


26 posted on 10/17/2023 7:23:23 AM PDT by HombreSecreto (The life of a repo man is always intense)
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To: devane617

Maybe the daughter is just stupid, like her Mom.


27 posted on 10/17/2023 7:26:10 AM PDT by Dalberg-Acton
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To: devane617

Math is racist..
This is because math is absolute, fuzzy logic can’t be applied to math, although the libs are trying.

I have mathematically disproven the theory of fossil fuels. This is the religion of the left.

All things that the left believes can be disproven by math.
This is why math is racist.


28 posted on 10/17/2023 7:27:24 AM PDT by joe fonebone (And the people said NO! The End)
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To: devane617
"math difficulties" = bad teachers and feral kids brought up by terrible parents.

Sprinkle in a little DEI, ebonics, and laziness and you have "rasis maff".

29 posted on 10/17/2023 7:30:21 AM PDT by DCBryan1 (Inter arma enim silent leges! - Cicero )
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To: House Atreides
...it’s called low-IQ and every generation has a percentage of the population in that category. Unfortunately I fear that percentage is rapidly INCREASING.


30 posted on 10/17/2023 7:32:22 AM PDT by BlueLancer (Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times, it's enemy action.)
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To: Red Badger

it’s maff, yo


31 posted on 10/17/2023 7:36:25 AM PDT by changeitback440
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To: mewzilla

Can’t wait to see how it’s treated? You know the answer: your tax dollars, lots and lots of them. (With plenty for the advocates, like Ms. Laura Jackson.)

Oh, and let’s restructure STEM so that dyscacula students are not at a disadvantage. In fact, let’s establish quotas to ensure they are represented in the workplace.

Nothing inspires confidence like knowing quota babies are overseeing the calculations for the new nuclear power plants.

Oh, not to worry. Nuclear power is “problematic,” so just outlaw it. Solar and wind power is the future. There, problem solved.


32 posted on 10/17/2023 7:39:43 AM PDT by Captain Rhino (Determined effort today forges tomorrow.)
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To: devane617

First screen the teachers.


33 posted on 10/17/2023 7:41:53 AM PDT by Salman (It's not a slippery slope if it was part of the program all along. )
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To: devane617


34 posted on 10/17/2023 7:46:07 AM PDT by Chode (there is no fall back position, there's no rally point, there is no LZ... we're on our own. #FJB)
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To: DownInFlames

Check her home for lousy parents.

Check her school for lousy teachers.

And I say that as someone who sucks at math and has to work my glutes off to stay proficient.


35 posted on 10/17/2023 7:46:54 AM PDT by mewzilla (Never give up; never surrender!)
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To: MCF

I substituted for high school math classes for a while. At the end of the lesson I would pull out a slide rule and ask if anyone knew what it was. To date, no one has known.


36 posted on 10/17/2023 7:51:06 AM PDT by 17th Miss Regt ( )
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To: Noumenon
Math isn’t that hard if you know the rules. PEMDAS will get you a long way in the basics.

Most of these troubled students haven't mastered addition facts let alone multiplication or division. Believe it or not before PEMDAS it was PEMA where students were taught that addition-subtraction as well as multiplication-division were the same thing. After PEMDAS was introduced students insisted on doing multiplication ahead of division and addition before subtraction. I think it was easier to teach PEMA and explain that subtraction was merely the addition of a negative number not a totally different function. I am barely literate in general math myself and have no desire to go deeper. But for those that do, take a look at Tablet Class Math Academy he covers PEMDAS to the absurd. Offers a complete course or just hundreds of free challenges on YouTube.

Send you struggling students to this guy for stimulating problems and explanations to the extreme. Believe it or not repetition is key to grasping math.

37 posted on 10/17/2023 7:55:14 AM PDT by itsahoot (Many Republicans are secretly Democrats, no Democrats are secretly Republicans. Dan Bongino.)
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To: MCF
She did not know what an abacus was!

It's a 70's Swedish pop supergroup that sings profanity laced hits.

38 posted on 10/17/2023 7:55:22 AM PDT by 70times7
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To: itsahoot
After PEMDAS was introduced students insisted on doing multiplication ahead of division and addition before subtraction.

At my son's school, I've seen it written as:
P
E
MD
AS

39 posted on 10/17/2023 8:01:44 AM PDT by tnlibertarian
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To: devane617

Calm down folks!

“Numerically Dyslexic” people are everywhere.

You can most often find them in front of you at the “10 Items or Less” register with around 23 things in their cart.


40 posted on 10/17/2023 8:07:07 AM PDT by 70times7
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