Behavioural Optometry

We visited a Behavioural Optometrist and have come away with a set of exercises which we need to progress over the next 3 months. Key exercises are:

"I went to the shop and bought..." (to be done in car on way to/from school)

Touching hands whilst staying focussed on a point
Following a point through a figure of 8 without moving their head

Clapping to a beat

Touching the opposite knee whilst marching (to be done before bed)

Moro reflex exercise (to be done before bed)

New link - Dyscalculiatreatment.com

I stumbled across this site when googling "Subitizing Dyscalculia". On initial review it looks very good, will need to read further....

http://www.dyscalculiatreatment.com/

With the focus on subitizing the following game is often mentioned, I shall try it out and report back...

http://www.unicog.org/numberrace/NRDownload.html

Visual Processing

There seems to be an emerging view that learning differences may have a link to visual processing. We are due to visit a Behavioural Optometrist later this month following a recommendation by the Educational Pyschologist. Below is a link to a related article from Dyscalculia.org

http://www.dyscalculia.org/research/eye-cells

Saturday 3 Sep

I'm hoping that place value to hundreds is now secure. I've also started using a spike abacus which I used a saw on to reduce the length of each spike so it could only take 9 counters. When using the abacus for addition it then shows that once you get to 9 you have to add a counter to the next spike as there is no more room on the Units spike! Have also used the BBC KS2 game for addition, which he was very excited by and did well on in terms of carrying over the ten, but it did highlight he still has more work to do on addition to 20. I need to get across the concept of one more I.e. 6+6=12, therefore 6+7=13. Will try using counters.

More resources related to Place Value

Have been looking for some more resources to help with Place Value and found a good site for various worksheets -

http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/math-drills-minute.html

Place Value update

Back from our holiday and am continuing with place value using the Tony Attwood book, which I still think is a great approach.

After using coloured counters and coins to re-inforce U, T, H place value I'm hoping that knowledge is now embedded. I'll revisit next week to check though...

My focus is now on addition up to thousands with carrying over where a column adds to more than ten. Tried a set of 6 sums for the first time last night with mixed success so have looked for an online game to help and found this excellent game from the BBC (as ever) with their Key Stage 2 Maths site. Will try out and report back.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/maths/number/addition_subtraction/play.shtml

Place Value

First day of school holidays! Focus is on teaching Place Value - Units and Tens initially. We wil try the Base Ten game today. I'm also thinking of other ways to re-inforce this and move on to Hundreds also. Will try with three random numbers and ask to arrange into highest value possible, which should give a good insight....

Will then move on to working through the Tony Attwood workbook - Practical Activities for children with Dyscalculia.

Update - the Base Ten game (see links) worked really well, kids enjoyed it and found it good fun.