If he has problems recalling or executing multiple step directions - at school that might be division problems - then you may be looking at a language processing issue that needs speech therapy or intensive special ed support to help him learn to retain and follow directions. My daughter struggles with this and I've been told this is because of her severe auditory processing issues.
I hope this isn't too off-topic, but when I read this, I think of a right-brain, visual-spatial learner with left-brain, sequential weaknesses. On the division, I was wondering whether you may have tried Silverman's suggestion (see page 2 of this article
http://www.visualspatial.org/Articles/mthstrat.pdf )
Division is usually quite difficult for these children, since it is usually in a step-by-step fashion, and these students are lost after the second step. They are not step-by-step learners. They would learn much more rapidly if they were simply given a divisor, a dividend and a quotient, and asked to figure out their own method of arriving at the quotient. Don�t ask them to show their steps. Just give them another problem with the solution already worked out and see if their system works. Gradually increase the difficulty of the problems to test their system. This way of teaching is a lot like the methods used in video games. Even in adult life, these individuals will do beautifully if they know the goal of an activity, and are allowed the freedom to find their own methods of getting there.
I was wondering how effective this suggestion might be. My dd is getting to a point soon where she'll want to learn long division and I'm afraid the steps are going to be a problem.
Additionally, if steps are an an executive function task, is executive function a left-brain thing? Just thinking out loud.
