Last year I posted to see if anyone else here has a child diagnosed with a math disability, aka dyscalculia. There was one encouraging post about a STEM doctoral student and suspected dyscalculia in one parent and one kid but neither formally diagnosed. We discussed using songs and finger tricks to increase automaticity.
Fast forward to last week's IEP meeting. Over the winter DD was evaluated by a 2E expert recommended by the Eides. This report reiterated previous diagnoses of LD's in reading, writing and math, now labeling all of them as "severe". This evaluator suggested all kinds of follow up testing which has so far led to additional diagnoses of CAPD and vision issues so we have now added VT and training her left ear to the OT, SLP and Wilson services she is receiving in school.
So at the IEP meeting last week I asked about the math disability and why it seems that DD is making NO progress. She literally cannot add or subtract to 10 without counting on her fingers. There are accommodations and work arounds and manipulatives but no apparent progress.
2E expert said she believes DD has very strong understanding of advanced concepts and may eventually be deemed gifted in math. How is this possible I ask? Lots of uncomfortable shifting in chairs around the room. (DD is in OOD placement at a spec Ed school so a room full of spec Ed folks...) They then start telling me that no one really knows a lot about math disabilities, there aren't any scientifically proven interventions, it's not something you see a lot of, etc, etc, etc. 2E expert suggests looking into DD's understanding of "Piagetian principals" and suggests that she doesn't understand the fundamentals of a number line. Teacher has been telling me that she is doing very well with multiplication but as far as I can tell that means being able to find her way around a chart (i.e. 6 on the X axis meets 8 on the Y axis at 48) but not necessarily understanding that 6x8 means you have six sets of 8... Yes that's it they say. "So are you saying there are holes in her foundation?" I ask. Why yes, that seems to be the issue. "So should we go back to basics - to pre-K level math and start over so we can plug those holes?" Sounds like a good idea but which math curriculum to use?
Much talk about Key Math (not really sure what that is) and statements that they used that to evaluate DD and no problems showed up. Maybe they should readminister that evaluation? "If she measured average in all areas and no problem was identified but she still can't add or subtract to 10 without using her fingers maybe Key Math is not the right test?" I ask... Again uncomfortable shifting in their seats...
Is it really possible that no one knows what to do with a math disability? Really? I think people at the school, in our district, the 2E expert - everyone wants to help DD but are just stumped. This is a thing - it has a name. How can no one have an idea of what to do for her? She clearly has processing issues (processing speed in the second percentile) and the difference between her verbal comprehension score and all other scores occurs in 0.0%-0.3% of the population. She is making progress in the other areas but literally has not progressed in math since 1st grade. Zero automaticity. Repetition doesn't help.
We are continuing our meeting next week. Can you help me figure out what to ask for? What evaluation to use? What intervention to try? What program to request?
