Wednesday 17th May was national numeracy day. To find out more, please see dyscalculia network facebook page and https://www.nationalnumeracy.org.uk. Therefore, it was a good week to have the British Dyslexia Association (BDA) conference on the importance of using visual materials in maths learning.
The BDA do maths? Yes- absolutely!! It may be that someone has maths difficulties caused by the impact of dyslexia, or another neurodiverse condition. 60% of leaners with dyslexia have maths learning difficulties, which may be due to poor working memory, or speed of processing. Please do take a look at the BDA website for further information. https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/news/national-numeracy-day-2023
The conference was a great day, full of information about supporting our students/ own children and the importance of using visual materials. If we can ‘see’ something, it can make a huge difference to our understanding and helping our children move forward, but we also need to give emotional support and to support mathematical resilience.
So how can parents help? Dr Rosemary Russell gave a great talk on how to help parents develop mathematical resilience in their children and she says:
- Relax;
- Start from where they are;
- Listen: don’t dismiss;
- There is more than one way of doing a problem;
- Pass on a positive attitude, such as “I can’t do it yet” attitude, known as a growth mindset;
- Support our children to move out of the ‘anxiety and can’t do it’ zone. Please see these ‘toasty tips’ for growing a maths brain: https://www.mathsontoast.org.uk/fun-maths-at-home/the-toast-model/
- Please also look at Dr Russell’s very valuable book: Help Your Child DO Maths even if you DON’T: 10 things that anyone can do to help their child with maths.
Happy maths work everybody 🙂
