While all of our students don’t need ALL of these strategies, I’ve organized a lot of the things mentioned in this series of blog posts into six big categories. I hope that they’ll help you wrap your mind around SIMPLE things that you can do to help your students with some of their biggest learning obstacles in math. Place Holders & Trackers For many of our students, keeping track of their place is HARD. However, I love to have a few tools handy to help them keep track of where they are and what they’re doing. Bingo Markers Desk Pets…

How do low scores in expressive and receptive language impact our students’ ability to do math? For a long time, I think I zoned out when the SLP was sharing the results of her scores on evaluations. But, not anymore! I’m see that these areas can impact a student’s ability to complete classroom tasks. Our job is to be constantly be looking at ways to help and accommodation them. Expressive Language Expressive language is a persons ability to express their needs, wants, ideas, and thoughts. It is their ability to use either words, phrases, or sentences to be able to…

What is working memory? Working memory is the ability to hold information in the brain and do something with it. For example, this is the skill that is needed to help us remember a phone number that we heard on the radio and then dial it on our phone thirty seconds later. Causes for Poor Working Memory: ADHD Inattentive Type, Traumatic Brain Injury, Deafness, Oral Language Deficits, or Genetic Disorders Students with Poor Working Memory Might: Forget what was assigned for homework Struggle to copy from the board or a book Fail to remember multiple steps Strategies to Help Students…

What is a motor perceptual disability? Students with difficulty in this area have a hard time coordinating their eyes to their hand movements. They often have a hard time holding, moving, or using a crayon or pencil. They might may seem very uncoordinated. Below, you’ll find examples of things you might see students with motor perceptual disabilities doing in your classroom as well as some strategies for helping them overcome these difficulties. 1. Writes Uphill or Downhill In math, this could cause students to solve math problems incorrectly. Their paper might seem unorganized or hard for you (and sometimes even…

Auditory and Visual Disabilities are caused by a difficulty processing visual or auditory information in the brain. And man, oh man, do these processing difficulties make learning more difficult for them at school. For many of our kids, we identify weaknesses in reading, and often times, qualify them as having a specific learning disability in reading. However, we need to be aware and looking for times when these processing difficulties might also be occurring in math! 1. Students Might Lose Their Place Students with difficulty processing visual information often lose their place as they’re solving math problems. For example, I…