1. According to the New Jersey Special Education Administrative Code, 6A:14-3.5, a “"Specific learning disability" corresponds to "perceptually impaired" and means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or using language, spoken or written…to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.” When a child’s performance in mathematics is substantially below what is expected based on the ability of other student’s their age, a child is considered learning disabled in mathematics. Mathematically disabled students range from mild to severe and present varying types of difficulties for students. A more specific form of learning disabilities in mathematics is dyscalculia. Dyscalculia is referred to as the dyslexia of math, where students have difficulty comprehending a wide-range of mathematic concepts that varies from person to person and affect people differently in school and throughout life. Students with learning disabilities in mathematics have trouble mastering basic number facts, the language of math, the visual-spatial aspects of math, as well as a host of other difficulties.
2. The onset of math disabilities can occur at any point in a child’s scholastic development. Although research continues to be compiled about the causes and interventions for students with learning disabilities in mathematics, there are presently five different skill types that experts refer to, to diagnose a student. A student can exhibit deficits in one or more of the different skill types, which all affect a child’s ability to excel in mathematics.
a.) Incomplete mastery of number facts is one of the skills that students have difficulty with. Mastery of number facts is the memorization of basic computations such as 5+6=11. Students begin to memorize these number facts during the early elementary years. If students are unable to master the basic number facts, they will have difficulty progressing to more advanced mathematical concepts because they will be unable to compute simple problems.
b.) Computational Weakness is another skill students struggle with. Computation weakness is when students make errors computing math problems because they misread signs, carry numbers incorrectly, write numbers illegible, or in the wrong columns. As a result, these students compute the wrong answer to math problems. Although students may have a weakness computing, the students may have a good understanding of mathematical concepts but struggle with visualizing or writing the problem out. Basic computation is essential to master in elementary school because getting the right answer is important in the lower grades.
c.) Difficulty transferring knowledge is the inability to make connections between the abstract or conceptual aspects of mathematics with reality. This is a common difficulty experienced by students with learning disabilities in mathematics because they are unable to relate abstract ideas to concrete ones. For example, understanding the dimensions of a triangle on paper and physically. Students that have difficulty transferring knowledge will better understand abstract concepts if they are able to hold and examine the objects.
Making connections with mathematical concepts is similar to the idea of transferring knowledge. Students have difficulty making connections between numbers and the quantities they represent, for example, understanding the quantitative difference between an inch and a mile. If students have difficulty making these connections then they will have trouble applying this information to new and more challenging situations.
d.) Incomplete understanding of the language of math serves as a huge problem for learning disabled students and can be the result of a language disorder. These students may also have difficulty with reading, writing, and speaking. However, in math the language problem lies with the difficult terminology used in math that is not used outside of the classroom. As a result, students find it difficult to comprehend written or verbal directions or explanations and have difficulty with word problems.
e.) Difficulty comprehending the visual and spatial aspects and perceptual difficulties is presently not a common problem; however it serves as the most severe for students that are unable to successfully visualize math concepts. These students will have problems judging the relative size of three completely different objects.
Aside from the five skill types other developmental characteristics for learning disabled students in mathematics, there are other signs that parents and/or educators can be look out for. The main signs parents and/or educators should take heed of is difficulty with output, organization, language, attention, visual spatial or ordering, and multiple tasks. Students with output difficulties will have difficulty memorizing and recalling basic math facts, procedures, rules, formulas and recently learned material. If they are able to recall this information they will be slow in doing so which can also affect the pace and legibility of writing. Students will also have difficulty with accuracy and forget what he/she is doing while working on a problem.
Students with organizational difficulties will struggle with the order of multiple step problems and focus on irrelevant parts of an arithmetic and/or word problem instead of the important information. Language difficulties cause a student to have difficulty with the vocabulary of math, confusion with the language of word problems, problems with receptive and expressive language of math and difficulty remembering values and math definitions. Attention difficulties in math include being easily distracted or restless, loss of place, and may look mentally fatigued or extremely tired when doing math problems. Students with problems in visual, spatial, or sequential aspects of math may have trouble learning and ordering multi-step procedures, feel overwhelmed when given a worksheet of math problems, and unable to copy problems correctly. These students will also face difficulty reading the hands on a clock, interpreting and manipulating objects, and the movement of objects in space. A student with problems with multiple tasks may find it difficult to move from one type of problem to the next and cannot handle all of the demands of a complicated word problem.
3. If I were a teacher in a general education classroom I would need a lot of information and strategies to help support a child that is learning disabled in math. Being able to openly communicate with the student’s parents, past teachers, and other professionals who have worked with the student to gain knowledge about the students learning ability and strengthens and weaknesses will benefit my support of the student. Open communication will also allow me to devise a plan of action that will best address the child’s needs. Also, speaking with the child directly to gain a better understanding of where he/she struggles will help me support the student. Discussing with the student what they are having problems with and devising a goal with the student will give the student more confidence in overcoming this disability. As far as my classroom is concerned, it is important that I create an atmosphere for all students to feel comfortable and accepted so that they will want to learn and do well. As a result, it is important that I instill a foundation of respect and acceptance in my classroom so that there is a sense of camaraderie and openness in the classroom.
After identifying what the student’s strengths and weakness are I can, along with the assistance of parents and other educators work to help the student learn math more effectively. Working outside the classroom, at home for instance allows further reinforcement of topics and allows the student to become more acquainted with the material. There are a number of strategies that can be used in the classroom for a student that has a learning disability in mathematics. Strategies that can be used inside and outside the classroom include, using graph paper to organize ideas, using more than one method to figure out a math problem, using concrete objects to introduce a concept and then moving on to abstract ideas, clear and explicit explanation of instructions, encouragement, a distraction free work environment and a lot of practice in short sessions.
I can also encourage students to have a math journal where they record all of the math ideas they have learned. Therefore, students can refer back to a topic if they need to refresh their memories. The incorporation of math games will improve their working memory and push the students to work under pressure. When working with math problems, students can use mnemonic devises that will help them order the information in a word problem. I can also encourage the student to put problems into their own words and to verbalize the problems out loud so he/she can feel more comfortable with math problems because they will be able to explain them. For students that have difficulty with attention, I will assist the student in self-monitoring and self-checking themselves so they have an opportunity to stop and correct themselves. Also, making sure I choose math topics of interest and relation to the students will further incline the student to learn and perform the math problems. Spending too much time on one topic will lose the attention of most students. Therefore, allowing short sessions of meaningful instruction will maintain the student’s attention and help them to remember the information. To increase classroom camaraderie I can choose a student that is strong in math and will serve as a helpful resource for the student that is weak in math. The stronger student will tutor the other student. This will vary the type of help the student is receiving and allow the teacher to help other students in the class when necessary.
Most of the aforementioned strategies can not only be used for students that are learning disabled in mathematics but for all students. This way all students are gaining helpful and beneficial skills in math that will help them to succeed.
4. There are a number of resources that will help a teacher serve a child that is learning disabled in mathematics. This includes:
Math specialists in the school: Math specialists can provide the teacher with strategies to use in the classroom to assist the student. They are also an outside the classroom resource that the student can go to for extra help.
Bender, William N. (1992). Learning Disabilities: Characteristics, Identification, and
Teaching Strategies.
The Learning Disabilities book is a great resource for future and present teaches. The book discusses in detail the varying types of learning disabilities, how to identify them as a teacher and strategies to accommodate the students in the classroom.
(2006). Learning Disabilities Association of
http://www.ldaamerica.org/index.cfm.
The Learning Disabilities Association of America website for parents, teachers, professionals, anyone who has or knows someone with a learning disability. It is an educational tool with vast information of various types of learning disabilities and a support system for people. There are Learning Disability sites located all over the
(1999).
The
(2002). Misunderstood Minds: Difficulties with Mathematics. Retrieved November 23,
2007, from Misunderstood Minds: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/mathdiffs.html.
The website, Misunderstood Minds provides helpful information for parents and teachers about what signs they should be paying attention to if a child has a learning disability in math. There are also strategies to help the student inside and outside of the classroom as well as cultural observations and statistics of mathematics disabilities today.
(2007). LD Online: Math. Retrieved November 23, 2007, from LD Online: The world's
leading website on learning disabilities and ADHD:
The LD Online website is also a useful resource for researching information about learning disabilities and ADHD. The website offers articles, newsletters, first person accounts and in-depth information of specific learning disabilities and ways to accommodate the disabilities in the classroom.
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