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Dyslexia Thailand
The Dyslexic Center in Thailand
Math and Dyslexia
 Breaking Down ProblemsIn the classroom, we break down reading and spelling into various sub skills that can be tested and analyzed. As a result, students’ strengths and weaknesses may be acknowledged and an effective course of action can be planned and implemented. Math skills, however, are not evaluated in this manner. Math is assessed in terms of achievement Resulting scores define students as being “good, average, , or bad” at math. |  Multi-steppingMulti -step tasks can be difficult for students who have trouble organizing, naming, or sequencing; however, experience has shown that these students can be helped by using instructional methods that forge meaning and context through physically organizing objects, naming the action, and writing the process down. |  Learning-StylesStudents' learning styles must be acknowledged through the development of strategies that compensate for their individual difficulties. Woodin has found that using activities that involve visualizing, walking, and talking out problems are effective in developing vocabulary, organizational skills, and oral and written output. |
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 Cognitive.ProcessesLike reading, math involves many cognitive processes or systems. Ideally, teachers should diagnose and treat math breakdowns with the same specificity and strategies they apply to language-based instruction. When math remediation is most effective and efficient, it employs the same best practices that are used to address reading struggles. |  Processing SpeedStudents with slower processing speeds or executive-function problems are often no different from their peers in math proficiency in first and second grade; but as they confront multistep computations in upper elementary school tests, their scores tumble because they lack the skills necessary to produce organized, efficient output. |  Visual/Spatial handwriting IssuesStudents who have visual/spatial and handwriting problems have difficulty learning and expressing number facts. Today, some educators suggest that students just use a calculator instead of learning their number facts, but this strategy bypasses essential skills and procedures. Truly knowing these skills is important. |
 Match ConceptsMath-specific concepts seem to be particularly difficult to master. In addition to being abstract, these concepts contain terms that confound students with visual similarity (divisor vs. dividend) or auditory similarity between homophones (times: multiplication vs. times: hours and minutes, or times: “X” the 24th letter). The terms can become more accessible when presented through concrete demonstrations. |  Working MemoryOften an educational evaluation will describe a dyslexic student as having “low working memory.” Low working memory is indicated when someone cannot keep many things on their “screen." Many struggling math students can enhance their memory of processing steps if they name each step of a math process as it is being performed. This strategy requires students (and teachers) to slow down, but the investment of time increases the student’s ultimate grasp and retention of the mathematical concept. |  Counting and ComparingA common response to students who are having counting problems is to simply have them do daily counting practice; however, students with counting and comparing difficulties also benefit from practice that utilizes patterns and relationships. These strategies improve their ability to conceptualize and compare numbers without counting.. Dyslexic children could also improve subitizing and visual counting through daily practice. |
 DyscalculiaDyscalculia is usually perceived of as a specific learning difficulty for mathematics, or, more appropriately, arithmetic. Because definitions and diagnoses of dyscalculia are in their infancy and sometimes contradictory, it is difficult to suggest a prevalence, but research suggests it is around 5%. However, ‘mathematical learning difficulties’ are certainly not in their infancy and are very prevalent and often devastating in their impact on schooling, further and higher education and jobs. |
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