ster wrote:
had some success , albeit with lots of tears this evening...worked on 2 word problems from her math homework. got out whatever i could find in the kitchen for manipulatives in order to help her try to understand~i don't know that she really understood, but she sure thought it was funny that my Diet Coke was Josie from the word problem. It seems that she is so quick to try and answer the word problems, that she doesn't read to the end to see what it is the problem is asking for.....i tried to get her to skip ahead to the question the problem was asking ( a favortie technique of mine from when i was young), but she lost it and started fussing about how she had to read the problem in the order that it was written. then her NT brother came in and tried to help by telling her that she could change the words in the problem to be about things she likes ( today she tried to change the story from being about 3 children to the story being about a zebra, a horse, and a camel). Now there's nothing wrong with changing the problems to be more interesting if you can still focus on what answer you're looking for. but as soon as she figured she could focus on her current obsession , animals, math comprehension flew out the window....and then the tears , rolling around on the floor, and kicking came when i insisted that she try to refocus on the problem at hand. probably about a good 5 minutes on this tantrum. but when the tantrum finally ran its course, she finally sat back down and was able to finish the math. ( and then got to drink some of Josie ( my diet coke) !). hope this small success today will build into some bigger successes soon.
Wow, your daughter sounds so much like my 8 y/o daughter. She skips ahead on the word problems and doesn't read it through carefully so she often gets the wrong answer. We were also told not to help her with her homework so that the teacher knows what the kids need more instruction on. It's not the problems and concepts that she's having an issue with, it's the directions and more ambiguous language in the word problems that present her some difficulty. She can add and subtract fractions, numbers in the thousands, but when it comes to word problems she's got a huge issue. They just did a segment on estimates and that REALLY threw her for a loop. She can't seem to grasp estimates. She was very upset when she got a C on her last math test on estimates.
I don't necessarily help her with her homework, but I do sit next to her, keep her on task, explain the directions so that she knows for sure what she's supposed to be doing, and I check her homework. If she has missed something, I ask her to re-read more carefully and go back and work on the problem some more. She usually figures it out the second time around. If I were to leave her to her own devices in getting her homework done, she would sit at the kitchen table for 2-3 hours muddling through it, being distracted by anything and everything(I have a 4 and 3 y/o at home too, so there's a lot of distractions) and get nothing done. I know, because that's how this year started and I just recently began my new experiment with "helping" her more. She would get so frustrated because it was taking so long, then have a melt-down when she brought me her homework to look over and I'd point out her mistakes.
She's fabulous in school, follows directions, is quiet and helpful, but she can't remember her homework assignments unless they're written down, she forgets her books and papers, forgets to give me school letters and notices that get sent home, and she's ultra disorganized- loses everything. Her teacher this year is much better than last year though and actually makes them write down their assignments and sends home weekly notices on what they're doing in class- last year parents were left in the dark about what was going on in the classroom.
It's been a hard struggle and I'm hoping that we can get her evaluated soon and learn to cope and better manage her issues as well as mine. I think one of our main problems is that I am also Aspie(as is hubby), but I'm more OCD, super-organized and responsible where she(and hubby) are disorganized and sloppy and that drives me mad. LOL!
05 Oct 2006, 12:15 am
