Lisa’s to five dyscalculia tips

I recently purchased an app for dyscalculia, and was astonished to find that it was simply addition and subtraction facts practice.  Although this is helpful, it won’t do much to help a student overcome dyscalculia.  Following are my top five tips for treating dyscalculia.

1. Card games, dominoes, dice, and any other game with number patterns will help instill a number sense in a student with dyscalculia. (These are also great for fine motor skills.) 2. Use colored markers or pencils when doing math problems. This keeps the right side of the brain busy so the left hemisphere can be activated and not disrupted.
2. Young children should use manipulatives, but beware of dependence on counting for math facts memorization. This is too time-consuming to be efficient, and by the time the student figures out what the math fact is, then he/she forgets the step to the problem.
3. Don’t use flashcards to teach this learner math facts! This just doesn’t work. A student with dyscalculia needs to use movement, rhythm, visual cues, as well as auditory cues in order to succeed academically.
4. Treat the student for visual and auditory memory skills success. When these skills are weak, then it is difficult to perform difficult math problems.

There are many more things you can do to help a student with dyscalculia, but this is a great start!

Best wishes,

Lisa