Dougy is naturally smart. His little brain operates on factual, systematic data. Things need to be complete in his mind (i.e. his OCD tendencies). So as he was learning math I thought he would have NO issues with it. Kindergarten and 1st grade were a breeze for him (simple addition, counting, shapes ect...) but 2nd grade brought on............dun dun dun ...........double digit addition and subtraction (ahhhh!).
It’s not that he couldn’t get the right answers to these problems, because he often did. The issue was showing his work. You know when you are adding and the you have to carry the ‘1’ over or when you are subtracting and you have to borrow
(see picture on the right).
Dougy DID NOT like this concept and proclaimed “I don’t need to show my work, I get the right answer SEEEEEE” His sweet teacher got tired of asking him to do it, so she just let him do it HIS way.
I discovered this was happening when I was helping him with his homework. He did, in fact, get the right answer but didn’t show his work. I asked him to re-do it and this caused a nervous melt-down. He got upset with me and screamed at me, so I sent him for a time out (or CHILL OUT). It took 3 rounds of yelling and time outs for him to finally sit down and let me show him how to do it. I talked to his teacher about it and told her I wanted him showing the work (because later on it will be important with more difficult problems, right??).
To this day he still HATES showing his work. (Such a silly thing to be so passionate about). His 3rd grade teacher has already spoken to me about this and we are teaming up to enforce the rule!
So now in 3rd grad, multiplication and fractions have unfortunately entered our lives (I say this because I am TERRIBLE at math, sadly I think he’s smarter than me in this area).
Dougy’s issue with multiplication. I was told that kids on the spectrum think more in pictures. I realized this was probably true during homework one night. Dougy had this problem: 3 X 4 = ? He very tensely called me over for help and said “mom, does this mean
4 groups of 3 or 3 groups of 4???” I told him it could be either one, and this was UNACCEPTABLE to him. “It HAS to be one mom, I can’t figure it out until you tell me.”
I concluded that he needed to see the groups in his head to figure out the answer.
I proceeded to tell him to do 4 groups of 3 first, then do 3 groups of 4 next and see if they matched. He did this and sure enough they matched (this created a light bulb effect in his little brain).
He continues to struggle with knowing how many groups of numbers he needs to visualize to get the answer, but he's a smart guy so he does it both ways and makes sure it matches. (I tremble at how he will see division.....)
Dougy’s issue with fractions. He totally gets the concept but when he has to divide shapes into equal parts he has difficulty. He envisions things differently and gets really upset when he gets an answer wrong. In his brain he saw it right and CAN’T understand why his teacher doesn’t see it that way. See the example of this below.
Dougy had to be shown how his answer did not make three EQUAL parts. He was attracted to the angles and it just made sense in his brain to do it like this. He later explained that when he tried to do it like the first one, the three parts never looked equal when he drew them. (The angles gave him a a starting and ending point, just computed better up there).
Needless to say, I won't be helping Dougy on his math homework anymore (I thought Dougy's answer above was right too ha ha). My husband has taken over and that's perfectly fine with me!
Clipart obtained through a paid license through smartysymbols.com
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