Hi all,
I’m looking for some input on my 7 y/o son (will be 8 in June). For some background, he was delayed in his motor skills and expressive language, and went through EI and PSD. When he aged out of PSD, he tested average to above average except for gross motor and articulation, and went on to regular ed. His IQ tested at 118.
He seemed to do pretty average academically in Kindy and 1st. Now he is in 2nd, and it initially looked like he was really coming into his own — reading and writing above grade level. The only thing his teacher mentioned to me at our November conference was that he needed to practice his subtraction facts. Then, last month, they started learning money, and he had a very hard time with that. He would confuse nickels with quarters, had trouble remembering the values of the coins, especially quarters, and had some trouble adding coins. His teacher approached me a couple of times with extra work for him.
I’m beginning to wonder if he might have a math and/or memory-related LD. In addition to his difficulty with money, he has always had trouble with time concepts. He forgets what month it is, confuses months and seasons, seasons and holidays, and doesn’t seem to have a good sense of time in general. He doesn’t seem to know the order of the seasons, and occasionally will ask me strange questions, like “Are we going to school today?” at 3:00 on a Saturday. He wrote a nice paragraph on the month of March, and concluded it with “March is a very lucky year”. He makes that kind of mistake all the time. They just started learning time in school, so I’m not sure how he’s doing with that.
He has also always had trouble with rote memory. He took a long time learning his ABC’s and learning to count. He still does not know his address, and only learned his phone number and birthday this past year.
All of these things seem to be at odds with his general intelligence and advanced reading and writing skills, which makes me wonder about an LD. He has been having trouble with wetting lately, and we think this might be related to anxiety over his math difficulties. (He has been to the doc to r/o any physical cause)
I have a conference with his teacher next week, and will get her take on this, but I would love some BTDT opinions.
Does all of the raise any flags for LD? Does anyone know of any tests that would target his issues with math/time/money and/or memory? Where would you go from here?
Any input is appreciated.
TIA,
Laura
Re: Possible math LD?
My son was given the WPPSI-III, and these are the subtest scores from his report:
[b]Verbal Scale[/b]
Information: Scaled score 11
Vocabulary: Scaled score 14
Word reasoning: Scaled score 14
Verbal IQ: 116
[b]Performance Scale[/b]
Block design: scaled score 14
Matrix reasoning: scaled score 12
Picture concepts: scaled score 12
Performance IQ: 116
[b]Processing Speed[/b]
Coding: scaled score 11
Full scale IQ 118
Laura
Re: Possible math LD?
Lots of times kids with math related issues have lower performance than verbal scores. Your son is incredibly even in IQ.
The difficulty with months, seasons, ect. are sequencing problems. He may be having difficulty with money because of more visual-spatial issues–doesn’t see the differences between coins. Does he have the same trouble with real money as in class? My observation is that some of the pictures they use at school are difficult. You really have to know the size, shape, color ect. of money to know what you are looking at.
Does he have difficulty with long term memory or just short? In other words, does he remember things once he learns them, even if it takes him longer?
You might look at Mel Levine’s book “A Mind at a Time”. He has some detailed discussions about sequencing, visual spatial, ect. that you might find helpful. I think he does presume that kids would have strengths in one or the other, which isn’t always true. That can be frustrating in reading his book but it has lots of information that can help you better understand your child.
Beth
Re: Possible math LD?
I’m a person who has to think hard to tell left from right, who has NO sense of time (and I am always late for my tutoring appointments), who reverses digits in phone numbers, who took years to learn the multiplication tables — and I am a math major with two years of grad school, and lightning mental calculator.
As I was pointing out to a dyslexic calculus student tonight, *everyone* makes mistakes — but I get those 90 percent grades because I am smart enough to go back and *correct* them.
Take the time, teach the foundations *right*, above all do not rush and do not encourage fast mistakes. Go over and over the facts in seventy-five different ways. I am working with some students now, one in Grade 4 who was in Grade 2 so far behind that there was worry she might be a slow learner; she is now ahead of grade level and having done multiplication and long division, we are now moving into fractions. I am using with her the old old books that I myself lerned out of. These books take an interesting approach; they take *two full years* to teach the multiplication tables, all through Grades 3 and 4 a little bit at a time. One the tables up to four are learned, then two-digit multiplication and division are introduced, a little bit at a time, problems getting longer and new facts beiong introduced as each new table line is learned. It works!!
Re: Possible math LD?
Beth,
Thanks for the input. When ds was in Pre-K, I wondered about sequencing issues, because he had trouble with ABC’s, counting, etc, and it makes sense that the time issues would be related. As far as money goes, he seems to perform the same with actual coins as he does with pictures. As for memory, it is inconsistent. He seems to know things one day that he doesn’t know the next, but might know again the day after that. He has always been that way. I actually bought the Mel Levine book a few years back, and I will definitely dig that out again. Thanks!
Victoria,
I am also always late, and I also have a math degree! Thanks for the tips!
Laura
Nancy3
It does sound like weak sequencing skills. Audiblox is a home program that helps develop sequencing and other cognitive skills important for academic learning. The website for that program is http://www.audiblox2000.com.
Nancy
Do you have the IQ subtest scores?