My 12 daughter has been told she has to learn all her times tables at home, but have not provided any support for this.

[dyscovery101]

She is severely dyslexic (reading age of 6) and has a similar maths age. I have tried rote learning, singing, rhyming, button counting along with photos as a reminder and as far as I can see I have completely wasted my time. School have given up trying to get her to read and she now uses assisted technology.

[Hidden]

My attitude is and please dont be offended if she is going to get distressed or unhappy dont do it .. teach her to use a calcilator instead ..

I spent a long time hitting my head against walls about teaching my children to do what ever some teacher had asked .. It ruined my childs relationship with me and caused huge stress

[dyscovery101]

Hi Lexie. I absolutely agree with you! I just wish the school and the whole education system would realise the stress, worry and strain that they cause. I think a calculator is an excellent idea. Thanks.

[301606]

With every respect get her to dyslexia action. They do provide burseries. Believe me it is impossible to teach your own children.

[Hidden]

School need to understand the particular difficulties of a Dyslexic child regarding fluency of recall. Perhaps a visit to school with a reminder, as it sounds like you have some sort of report which should detail how her difficulties impact on recall. In my experience children need to have an understanding of what multiplication actually is and the patterns within it before they are ready to learn the times tables. Dyslexic children are often able to work their way around things once they see the logic behind them. Ask if perhaps she could have this sort of grounding at school followed by learning the 2x 5x then 10x tables one at a time. Hope this advice helps.

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[Edwilson]

Hi dyscovery101 I really agree with Dyslexia-tutor about the logic. I really struggle with ordering and so learning timestables were a nightmare for me at school and still are. I still can't do the ones that don't seem to have any logic without counting on my fingers. However, where I don't have to remeber a list of numbers but understand the rule I can do it quite easily. Thus I can do 2, 5,9, 10, 11 and 12 and I can use a callculater or my finges for everything else.

[JennyP]

I did A level maths and a science degree at Cambridge I still don't know my tables and can't spell it is all a pointless waste of time! I do what Edwilson does. just wish I'd managed to get there without the word school filling me with dread. It needs to change not your daughter.

[digits in reply to JennyP]

How did you ever get to that level of education with your disabilities? I was not even allowed to repeat the algebra 2 course in high school because I was holding back the class. I was not allowed to take any chemistry lab or biology lab in high school because I did not have algebra 2 and trig. I was not allowed to take any real science courses in college because I did not have any high school math credits except algebra 1 with a C- and geometry with a D! AS a result I was not allowed to study any engineering or science in spite of my interests in those areas. I have been under educated and underemployed all my life. I have been crippled socially because of working minimum wage jobs while having a higher IQ.than 98% of the population. HOW CAN SOMEBODY LIKE ME GET INTO THE REAL SCIENCE COURSES THAT DO NOT RELY ON GRADE SCHOOL MEMORIZATION?

[dyscovery101]

Thank you so much everyone for your input. I agree with you all. My daughter has no maths logic. She does not really understand the concept of bigger numbers vs smaller numbers or know that £5 and 5p are different. This is why I am so frustrated with the school which sets homework without the means to explain how to go about it. I have had countless meetings at the school over many years about various aspects of her dyslexia etc and am fed up with the "shrug your shoulders" attitude. We cant help because:-

a. We have never known any child like your daughter

b. We have no money

c. We will look into it, but its not what we usually do.

d. She is too intelligent for a statement.

e. There is no point in your child having a dyslexia test because we already know she has "dyslexic like" problems.

But I have to say to JennyP It is nice to hear that you did a science degree. My daughter loves her science, I am hopeful that it will get her through the horrid part of school, but only if she gets a good tutor.

Thanks everyone.

[trekster22 in reply to dyscovery101]

i have 'compensatory dyslexia' which means i have found strategies to overcome my dyslexia before my diagnosis! My brain reads from right to left so upside down reading is easier than right way up.

Go to your MP about the school and explain how the school is failing your daughter.

Have you tried colour overlays with your daughter to help with reading?

i used to wear colorimeter glasses to help me filter out the types of light that were affecting my concentration.

Ally

[Glenco59]

There is a good book (and used to be a CD as well) called 'What to do when you can't learn your times tables' by Steve Chinn. My dyslexic son thought the CD was great, with lots of ideas for getting around the times tables.

[mathewlisett]

Heres soemthing no teacher wants me to say, or indeed the education system.

allow your child to learn in what ever way it enables them to understand the task and to gain a result.

if you come across a teacher telling you their way is the only way and that they are not impressed becuase they have set out a specific way to be taught and the child should do it, just do the virtual birdie to them as long as your child is progressing.

its sad, but this is the sole reason the educaiton system hasnt actually evolved in over 20 years since dyslexia was only starting to come into the foreground .

use a calculator, heck use a computer. I myself didnt even get a grade due to their reasoning of "becuase you didnt bring back a book" which i never had in the first place. even so, my stepdad taught me more in a 10 minute session durign college than the whole school experince.

plus with computers in my life i was able to at least figure what numbers and method to use to gaina result via google, or the calculator.

heck my mum has grades in maths , but even she can not do some maths,

but it does 100% frustate me of the view of schools when its looked down when using a calculator, with the old saying i was given "use your brain a dn think harder"

[rosannalenci]

Hello!

First let her take her time and use text to speech programs... my daughter has a lap top and uses youtube to study!!!! it helps...

download balabolka! it´s a russian software that reads aloud

the cool thing is that with my daughter we foudn out we don´t need to miss information just because she can´t read as others do! so we use the cyborg technique!!! technology is the dyslexia savior! ahhaha

do mind mapping to make her stabilize information! she must be more graphic and conceptual!

always make her learn the reason for the operations...

with my daughter this worked:

you have brownies (#1)

you have trays of brownies (groups of numbers 4- 4 brownies per tray)

you have refrigerators for brownies (groups of groups)

you have warehouses for brownies (megagroups)

tell her you have three trays of 6 brownies each... make her draw them!

thsi is how she will remember the tables

use the cuisinaire method

take the cuisinaire sticks... group them by color

if it´s 3 times 5, take the stick that represnets number five and use it three times

and then compare this stick with the corresponding #1 stick or compared to #10 stick

also use the base concept

each number in the table is a base

so make her move 3D sticks representing each number and repeat the sticks as time tables

help her find patterns

for example: table nine

1x9= 09

you start with 0 and write number from top to bottom 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9

then do the opposite from bottom to top 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9

0 9

1 8

2 7

3 6

4 5

5 4

6 3

7 2

8 1

9 0

all mutiplication tables have a pattern!

remeber all rightbrained- dyslexic- learn from general to specific... so explain the reasons why we multiply... make analogies ... drawings of situations!!!