My DD9 has been known for years, by both her teachers and us, to often make careless mistakes in math. We've always thought that it was due to boredom, or rushing through her work, etc.
However, part of me is starting to wonder if there might also be an underlying problem. Often, when this happens, DD is convinced she did a good job on the test/worksheet/etc, and that she was very careful and took her time. She is a very self-aware child, and I believe her when she says she did her work carefully. Which is why I am starting to wonder if there is something we are missing. She definitely understands the over-arching concepts extremely well, but something always seems to go wrong in the details.
Some examples of her common mistakes:
- solving the problem on a separate sheet of paper, but not transferring correctly to the answer sheet (example, the solution she gets on her scrap paper is 8,414...but she writes 8,144 on the answer sheet).
- lining up numbers correctly when solving math problems.
- leaving out key words when reading a word problem (each, more, etc)
- not understanding when to use +, -, x, or / in a multi-step word problem. (*we don't see this one as a careless mistake, but it is an area of math that is a constant struggle)
- place value in general can sometimes be very difficult for her. Such as remembering what 60 hundreds equals.
- she consistently gets confused with missing addend problems. But if you switch it around to another form, she's fine (ex. X - 28 = 432 will often stump her.)
- she struggles tremendously with picture patterns, like the kind that are on the Cogat. When she was younger, she took a really long time to read dice without counting the dots. She still counts the dots sometimes, actually.
On the other hand, she is fantastic with logic puzzles. LOVES them. And her automaticity is quite good. She had a much easier time becoming fluent in multiplication facts than addition and subtraction.
When she had her IQ tested, she was exceptionally high in both working memory and processing speed.
Over the years, there have also been some things that may be a visual-spatial weakness that we've noticed. She has difficulty with jigsaw puzzles (and gets frustrated and gives up on them quickly). Maps can seem like a foreign concept to her. Same with mazes. She hates word find searches (she can never find the words) but loves crossword puzzles. Things like that.
Anything that sounds to you could be a signal of an underlying problem? I'd hate that for the last 3 years what we've thought as careless mistakes might be something else. :-( Or that there is an underlying LD that has been masked by her giftedness.
