Maths problems and a bit of a rant

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Hi all. I'm hoping someone out there can help. My son J is 10 and in grade 4 at school, J is dx'd AS,ADHD,GAD.OCD and Tourettes. J started at a new school this year and his teachers and the staff at the new school are fantastic. I knew he was struggling with everything at his last school however his old school kept telling me he was fine. I had no real idea just how bad it was until we got to the new school. He isnt keeping up, especially in Maths. It was suggested by the new school much earlier in the year that perhaps he should repeat grade 4 again next year. .I don't think I can do this to him. He repeated a year at the last school (he did grade2 twice). We have jut had the mid year reports, J's report is all over the place (kind of what you would expect for an aspie) As a matter of interest I pulled his last years report out (the one for the same time of year) and I showed his new teacher. To say she was shocked was an understatement. She was really orried that she had marked him down more than she should have. His last year report indicated that he was competent in all areas of learning just a little behind in interpersonal development. His maths and reading marks were exactly the same. This is just not true. J took a national test last year which indicated that his reading was at mid high school level (he was 9). I knew there were problems last year and all the previous years but I kept being treated like a stupid paranoid mother, I kept getting told he is fine. Well he's not. Now the new school have the awesome task of trying to get him up to speed as much as they can (when he will let them). The new school tell me his maths is equivalant (cant spell and this key board is very hard to work with) grade 2. As I said earlier J is half way threw grade 4. His teachers are open to any suggestions as to what they can do to help. They asked me if I could think of games that he might be interested in that they could use at school (hmmmm I dont think they would allow Dawn of War, or Command and Conquer at school) they asked if I could suggest an interest of his that could assist him with his maths ( the interest at the moment is Hom Star runner). So I cant help. j's auditory and visual memory are in the 6th and 7th percentile so they are also fighting against that. I i explain to his teachers that even thou J hates the online maths program called mathletics he does better at this than the work sheets (less page clutter). But I am at a loss now. Any help or advice from anyone would be fantastic. Thanks in advance. Aurea xoxo

P.S Sorry my post was so long, I had to get it off my chest.

My son is now 14, has been receiving special ed help since the birth to three program. I am also an 8th grade teacher so I hope I can give you something to think about.
My son has always scored off the charts academically but he had problems with math in the past. Homework, open ended assignments, abstract multi step problems...forget it. In other words we knew he his stuff but demonstrating was a chore.
With new concepts he had success with using the characters of his favorite game/show/lifestyle Pokemon. Hit points, battle tactics 3 of them vs 2 of you etc....You mentioned that he did have a few favorite games but were not sure how the teachers would feel about it. The teachers could use the characters in the game to help explain concepts-not actually play the game in school. You could do the same thing. You could say "remember that in Dawn of War when squad x got beaten by squad Y? Did x have more experience points? How many more? What upgrades did their vehicles have? Morale " Etc. That would, however, require you to become familiar with his game I also would do all the writing when he first learned a new concept, so he could concentrate on the pattern. If one way didn't work I would try another-the wackier the better. My son would either get it or not, there wasn't anything in between.
Hope this helps..

Oh cripes....This brings back memories of high school for me....I was HORRIBLE at math.I scored excellent in English and Social (politics, economics, and history) and average in computers and Phys Ed amazingly....My motor coordination is good enough that I was not as bad as the worst athletes.I actually got a bronze medal in track and field in grade 8.But in senior high, I passed PHysics 20 (grade 11 physics) with a 51 percent and failed physics 30 (grade 12 physics).I passed math 20 pure (higher acedemic grade 11 math) with a 52 but failed math 30 pure (higher acedemic grade 12 math).I took the math 30 applied (grade 12 remedial math) and passed that with a 63.

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I agree that something simple like 10 minutes one-on-one time daily can make a huge difference. There is also something we use in our homeschool curriculum called "Math Card Games." It is a book that goes along with our Math program, but you can also order it individually from Amazon. It is really great for drilling those facts and ideas into their heads in a fun and low-stress way.
Amanda

The 10 min thing is a great idea, but don't stick to just during the school year. Do it in the summer too. Also try different ways of explaining it till you find one that works. I think I would have hated math if I hadn't gotten a particularly persistent teacher for 2nd grade. She also had me and another kid who was having similar problems play a sort of math race game. She had these lamented sheets with a bunch of problems on them and each sheet had a harder level of math on it. You had to finish all the problems on the sheet within the time limit (I think it was 2 or 3 min) before you could move onto the next and whoever had progressed the most in a week got a prize. Before then I hated math, but by high school I was on the math team. She also made sure my next teacher new you had to take a different route with me a lot, which helped SO much until I was able to figure out how to do it myself. I think for the most part teacher's listen to this kind of advise from parents, but even the stubborn ones that write it off as an over worried parent listen when the advise comes from another teacher.

I think that the previous posts are absolutely excellent and true -- consistent, short, daily work on math is what can really help these kids.

My thirteen year old wasn't doing well in math in the elementary years. We realize now that he had less-than-stellar teachers during that time, who did not require daily homework. Whatever they were doing, it just wasn't consistent enough. ALSO, my son has a particularly hard time paying attention in class, no matter how good the teacher is. So it is left to us as his parents to teach him most math concepts. He often comes home not knowing how to do the homework. But we work A LOT with him at the end of the day, and eventually het gets it.

Oddly enough, just when we think we are killing ourselves trying to get him to understand math concepts, the next day he goes to school and does GREAT on the tests. Makes no sense to us, because the day before he seems to really struggle with the homework. But, for some reason, it sticks eventually. He has become a straight A student in math in middle school, whereas he was a straight C student in math in elementary school.

We have had him jump ahead into a more advanced math class this year, and so we are prepping him with "Algebra 1 for Dummies" type books during the summer -- partially to make sure he feels like he has already seen much of the material, and partially because these books are humorous and fun for him to work through. Also, we have tried to make sure that he has a good teacher who consistently gives homework and is very clear with her demands as a teacher.

It is still not too late to help your son while he is in the 4th grade or even later. That's about when we began to wake up to the fact that he needed more help than he was getting at school. I am NOT very proficient in math, and therefore I can help teach him from a more basic level -- which comes in handy when he is having a hard time. I have to learn much of this stuff at the same time he is learning!

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