How A Teacher Can Help The Child With ADD - Teaching Math

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This is the third article in a series about strategies to help the child who is having difficulty in school. It is taken from a workshop presented at our recent Conference.

FAUS past president, Pat Palmer, discussed ways teachers and parents can help the child who is having problems in school. Even after a youngster is successfully on the Feingold Program, deficits may remain.

In the area of math, make sure the child understands math symbols as well as the numbers. If a child doesn't understand the symbols used in math, he won't be able to do the work. For example, what do you have to know to add 2 plus 3 minus 1? "Plus." Does he understand that plus means to add more? Now you've added 2 more; you have 4. That's a new number. Minus 1. Does he know that minus means take away? Then you have an equal sign. All of what I've just done equals what? This isn't a simple problem, but a sequence of numbers and symbols and concepts that the child has to understand, and if he doesn't understand each of these things he won't be able to do the math.

Try to identify the "weak link" in the chain of math skills. As math advances, he will have to carry out more complex sequences. In long division you need to divide, multiply and subtract, as well as carry numbers. Any one portion that is not understood will prevent him from being able to gain the skill, so try to find the place where he is having trouble and work on that weak link. (In his workshops on helping children with learning disabilities, Dr. John Taylor has a cute saying that helps children remember the steps they need to use for long division. The first initials for "divide, multiply, subtract and check" become: "Does Mother Serve Cheeseburgers?"

Some children who have difficulty doing math problems understand all the symbols and have the needed skills, but they can't keep the columns of numbers neatly lined up, so they add and subtract the wrong numbers. Graph paper may be helpful, but it can be hard on the teacher who has to check the work. There's a much easier solution that I like to share with the teachers in my course.

Take a sheet of lined paper and turn it on its side, so the lines are vertical instead of horizontal. Write an addition problem so that each number is in its own space. The lines will keep the columns of numbers in a row, and they can then be added up. This is easier for a teacher to read, and doesn't require special paper. What difference does it make if the paper is held sideways? The important thing is for the child to learn the math.

Underline the actions in a math problem; ignore the words, and you can then turn it into a math problem.

Movement games are a good way to teach numbers. For example, `'Every second child move left."

Getting It Together ... And Keeping It That Way

Since these children have so much trouble trying to get things organized, they may need not only to have a planner, but should have a specific time when they work on it, perhaps right after dinner, or after homework has been completed.

Have the child collect the things he needs to take to school the next day, and put them in the same place every evening. Judy Schneider had a system that worked well for her son. She used a variety of expandable, colored file folders which are enclosed on the sides. Each subject had a different color folder. There was room in each one for his book, assignment paper, homework, pen or pencil, etc. Everything he needed in school was right there; he had only to select the right folder. This is especially helpful when a child moves to a different classroom to change subjects.

When A Child Is Reluctant To Ask For Help, Problems Multiply

Both teachers and parents can learn a lot about how to help a child if they find out how he or she feels about making mistakes. We adults know that mistakes are a part of learning, and a part of life itself; but don't assume that your child sees them that way.

One Feingolder encountered many problems in junior high and high school because she had the idea that she was somehow expected to know the work being taught - even before her teachers got to it! After some heart-to-heart discussion, it came out that a teacher in elementary school had made her feel dumb because she didn't know the answer to an obscure question. (The teacher might not have intended this; keep in mind that our kids sometimes misinterpret other's words.)

She was relieved when she was assured that teachers would be out of a job if their students knew all the answers. To overcome her shyness about asking questions in class, she was encouraged to write a note and leave it on the teacher's desk, asking for some personal help.

She also had to overcome a perfectionistic tendency. Rather than turn in a homework paper with some answers missing, she would not turn in anything at all - getting zeros rather than a B+ .