I attended a dyscalculia conference organised by Positive Dyslexia, in conjunction with Edge Hill University. It was wonderful to be surrounded like-minded individuals wanting to find out more about dyscalculia! What a privilege to hear and learn from experts in the field.
Dr Kinga Morsanyi told us about upcoming screeners and their standardisation, which is very exciting. Having additional screening tools available to assessors will be great!
On the subject of screening, it was good to be reminded about the use of the Feifer Assessment of Maths as a screening tool, and how the three particular subtests relate to the definition (or not!). However, this helps the evaluation of what might be impacting on our students – it is not necessarily dyscalculia, but might be the impact of language, for example.
A big shout out to Rob and Cat from the dyscalculia network: they showed us some great games for the teaching of multiplication tables.
Outside of the formal presentations, I also talked with Karina (from Dynamo Maths) about that screener, and Pete Jarrett, who continues to encourage and support. Thankyou!
I presented a talk on the use of the Woodcock Johnson Cognitive Assessment test and how this can be used in a maths assessment. As always, my aim was to be as practical as possible. I hope my session was able to help fellow assessors feel confident in using this test- come on! Take that plastic wrapping off for those who have it but haven’t taken the plunge. You will be fine! Please get in touch if you would like to find out more.
It was also lovely to meet Rebecca Good (from Education Elephant) and to talk with her about the Woodcock Johnson.
So many opportunities to meet, discuss and learn from fellow maths enthusiasts – and to finally see people in the flesh (Dyscalculia network, you know who you are). It makes a great change from ZOOM, something that has been missing since COVID and I love it. Thank you, Katrina for putting this conference on and inviting me to speak. I continue to learn so much and am privileged to be involved in this exciting dyscalculia adventure we are on together!
