Category Archives: Students

Trouble with math? Time is running out for this year

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With the end of the school year rapidly approaching, we urge the parents to make sure you have all the resources in place to help your child when they are struggling with math.

You can make use of our Moms Teach Math video series (sorry for that name, Dads are also verv welcome to it) to be able to help your child with their home work and learn about manipulatives. When you think the math issues continue and there could be a math learning disability or Dyscalculia, make sure you get a diagnosis and plan for a meeting at school to give them accommodations so they can be successful like the other children who do not have learning issues.

Several easy ways to get a good view on what is going on

Our dyscalculia screener in the left navigation panel (free registration required) or our online Math and Dyscalculia Screening Test with a report emailed to you shortly after completing the test.

However you go about it, but remember this is the good moment to take action, we still have some months.

Being bad at math can be a learning disability

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When your child is not doing very well in Math, please do not brush it off with “math is just not their thing” or “they will grow into it”.

Chances are that your child  may have a Math Learning Disability or Dyscalculia. When your child does not start reading fast enough, don’t you take immediate action? You wouldn’t say “oh reading is not their thing”. No you would investigate and get help.

Likewise with falling behind in Math, you need to take action, get it assessed and get them the help they deserve.

Even when you are an adult and have always had trouble with math, there is something you can still do to change this. Get an assessment ( an easy quick start is at https://dyscalculiatesting.com ) and get helped to advance your career or just be more comfortable going through life that is increasingly made up of algorithms and numbers.

In the general population there is about one in fifteen people that have this learning disability but it is rather unknown and thus does not often get diagnosed at school yet.

Take action, make sure you know what is happening and if there is a reason to get further help.

The new school year, let’s get ready

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When your student(s) have been struggling with math it could be Dyscalculia. 

Let’s not wait too long and provide the support they need and deserve. 

To learn more about Dyscalculia you can:

Watch our Free Webinars

Follow our headlines

Do our Dyscalculia Awareness Course

Test your student online

Become a Dyscalculia Tutor with our online Training

Contact us for more or different support

DrSchreuder@dyscalculiaservices.com    tel: 832-377-8373


My Favorite Apps for Dyscalculia

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Tutoring children with Dyscalculia is most effective when done one on one. As it is valuable that the children continue to explore math between sessions, apps are a real good tool.

Apps come in all kind of forms and varieties. Many are free and some cost lots of money or give options to buy additional options from inside the app.

For an app to be effective for our purpose, I look for these things:

  • What does my student need to learn now?
  • Emphasize conceptual understanding
  • Balance entertainment and learning
  • How ‘busy’ is the screen?
  • How many adds?
  • How are mistakes handled? 
  • Reward for getting things right?
  • Do you see the results?

Below I show some of my favorite apps. I do not get paid to review these apps and I am also not involved in the development of these apps. Just a recommendation from my experience with these apps.

Math Concentration on the App Store on iTunes - Google Chrome 882015 25700 PM.bmp Math Concentration by NCTM, this is an electronic version of the classic Memory game, with multiple levels starting at matching dots with numerals to matching fractions and percent, for one or two players. KG – 5th grade.
Counting Beads Intro on the App Store on iTunes - Google Chrome 882015 24542 PM.bmp Counting Beads from Visual Math Learning has colored beads with numbers that stick to each other when combined in the right order. Kids have fun dragging the ever growing ‘train’ in wavy curves all over the screen. KG – 1st grade
 MathTappers Find Sums – a math game to help children learn basic facts for addition and subtraction on the App Store on iTunes - Google Chrome 882015 24344 PM.bmp Find Sums from MathTappers will teach kids the ‘missing number’ to make the selected target number (all numbers from 5 – 20 and 100), by showing green and red apples in a ten frame or as numbers in a part – whole frame. Self correcting: numbers don’t stick if you make a mistake. Grade 1 – 3
Make 10 Plus on the App Store on iTunes - Google Chrome 882015 23022 PM Make10Plus to learn the ’10 bonds’: similar to Find Sums, but with numbers instead of apples: all pairs that add up to ten by clicking on the other number that forms a pair with the presented number. Can be a bit fast in the beginning when child is starting to learn the ten bonds. Grade 1 – 2
 Number Rack, by The Math Learning Center on the App Store on iTunes - Google Chrome 882015 23743 PM.bmp Number Rack is the electronic version of the rekenrek (pronounced raikuhnreck), a manipulative from my native country the Netherlands. It has five red and five white beads, that slide on a metal bar in a very realistic fashion. You can add printed and written numbers to show the calculation; for larger numbers just add more bars. KG – Grade 2.
  Number Line from the Math Learning Center, shows the connection between the number and the place on the number line, the size of a number. It has multiple options such as changing the size of the number line, with and without numbers. Addition and subtraction are easy to visualize with forward and backward jumps, multiplication with multiple similar jumps and screen touch to combine multiple jumps. the How to has a clear explanation. App. is a generous donation from Dr David Moursund. Grade 1 – 5.
 Lobster Diver on the App Store on iTunes - Google Chrome 882015 25308 PM.bmp Lobster diver from New Mexico State University Learning Games Lab asks you to use an underwater number line to retrieve your lobsters, you need to be quick and watch out for the electric eel! Apart from learning the number line it also develops planning. Grade 1 – 3
  Visual Multiplication from Visual Math Learning starts with ‘Adding Beads’ a grid to drag balls with a number to their place. Two additional games are Chamber Maze, where you drag a ball with a nifty system to show  the number along a maze that shows the multiplication as an area, and Pool Table, a game where you multiply the numbers on two balls to go in the hole with the number of their multiplication
 Sushi Monster on the App Store on iTunes - Google Chrome 882015 25140 PM.bmp Sushi Monster from Scholastic has addition and multiplication by placing two plates with food and a  number on a round table in reach of a ravenous monster, who asks for a specific number and quickly gobbles up the food when the math is right. Grade 2 – 4.
Motion Math Wings on the App Store on iTunes - Google Chrome 882015 25844 PM.bmp Wings from Motion Math uses tilting your iPad to direct a bird to the highest of two numbers in multiplication, shown by a grid or a number. While flying to distant islands, you collect colored feathers for your bird, an innovative and a fun way to learn the multiplication facts. Grades 2 – 5.
 Thinking Blocks Addition on the App Store on iTunes - Google Chrome 882015 25003 PM.bmp Thinking Blocks from Math Play Ground is based on the Singapore way to solve word problems with part-whole strip models, and is useful alongside any text book to practice word problems. There are four activities: Addition and Subtraction, Multiplication and Division, Fractions, and Ratio and Proportion. Grade 4 – 7.
 Door 24 - Math on the App Store on iTunes - Google Chrome 882015 25512 PM.bmp Door 24 – Math developed by Curriculum Associates is based on the classic 24 games and starts with a robot telling the story and has an electrical wire that needs connecting by zapping moving ‘nanospheres’ with the fitting number into the slots. Multiple levels. Grades  3 – 7

Graph paper is beneficial for all math students!

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When you are shopping for school supplies, think about an extra journal or package of three ring binder paper: quad lined paper is the first and most economical help for your struggling Math student. A small minority of students gets visually confused by the squares on the page. So it is always best to search for paper that is very lightly printed with ‘unobtrusive’ squares: the emphasis should be on what your student is writing and drawing not on the grid. 

Neatly lining up calculations prevents errors. Quad paper can also help illustrate many concepts that are more complicated to explain in words but are easily seen on paper, such as multiplication, area and perimeter, for making graphs, and drawing congruent shapes, when showing transformations in size, slides, flips, and rotations and many more. 

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