Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional A wee bit frustrated

Oh, there's a thought! Thanks!

Wouldn't have helped her a bit on last Friday's math test, on which she got no credit for 3 of the problems because the instructions (which she didn't read) required that she show her work in a particular way. They're doing a whole unit on estimating using different techniques, and she has the "why bother estimating when it's just as easy to solve the problem" thing going on.

No winning with kids sometimes!

omg we are doing estimating too and get this, mine still counts on her fingers sometimes, but I can SEE her mentally add 2 2 digit numbers super easy...I can WATCH the process on her face and I'm sorry, but I am with the kids...why ESTIMATE why I can just SOLVE it? lol!!!

Honestly, sometimes I too wonder why does my child get a paper with 20 rounding or estimating exercises on it. And it's the same thing about showing the work or READING the instructions and understand like what "explain" the answer means vs "show your work"...bleh...

I remember my dad trying to teach me algebra when I was about DD's age. "Why would anyone write x there? It's obvious that it's really a 3 that belongs there!"

I kind of think it's a brain development thing, and that this, too, shall pass.

I'll confess to the same mindset even into college (and when it comes to dd and the whole AS thing, the apple not only did not fall far from the tree but may not even have fallen at all). I had learned to do a certain kind of math problem one way, and in my clinicals, was learning to do it a different way. Since my clinical instructor had written the text, she was very invested in us doing things her way-- and at the beginning of one test, leaned over my shoulder and said quietly "you may find that sometimes it's to your advantage to do things the way you're told, not the way you think is best." Uh...erk. Yeah. Stimulus for sudden epiphany, that.

Yeah, I said in one of the other threads that being able to do something stupid and pointless because someone in power wants you to do it is a useful life skill. It's also one I came to very late in life.

To break the habit of rushing and encourage the habit of attention to detail, sometimes it helps to break down the task (in this case taking the test) into small parts with a reward for completing each part, and to reduce the incentive to rush.

Say your child really wants a trip to a local amusement park. You can set up an incentive system just for taking these tests. First explain why developing the habit of accuracy and taking your time is important to you, and why you are willing to reward her efforts towards improving with a signifiant reward (the trip.)

Next lay out the subsets of the task. To reduce the rushing, ask that she stay seated looking at the test for at least 30 minutes (or whatever you think is long enough for the test) whether she is done or not.

So she can earn points towards tha amusement park trip each time she takes the tests. Score something like this:

Sitting in front of the test looking at it for 30 minutes 20 pts.
reading directions out loud 10 points.
double checking each answer another way 10 points
writing work down instead of doing it in your head 10 points

Earn 100 points and I'll take you to the amusement park!

I used this system this school year with my son for homework and what I have found is that having used it for over 30 days, he now has formed more of a careful homework habit and I don't even need to use the rewards so much any more.

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To follow up on HoneyBadger's point, I think a points system can be very valuable. The one tweak I would make would be to modify the recommendation for "30 minutes looking at the test". I suspect for a gifted child with issues of focus or careful attention, that could be counterproductive. I might instead take time to make sure the child knows how to reverse-check each type of problem that will be on the test, so that they can go from the answer they wrote down back to arrive at the original question, and practice that with them. Then offer whatever incentives seem to work for reverse-checking each answer on a practice test, so they spot the careless mistakes. For some kids, reverse-checking the problem is not a boring repetition of the calculation they already did once, but an "extra twist" on the problem that has some fun to it, and has the added advantage of letting them catch errors before they're graded.

My DS6 has a lot of resistance to doing things twice, including explaining something he knows the teacher or coach already knows the answer to. He sees it as arbitrary and repetitive (which is of course true), and has trouble accepting that this is the only way that other people can verify his understanding. An approach that doesn't involve him having to repeat himself is almost always the best option if we want him to cooperate at this stage.

I have read your description of your daughter in this, and other posts and nodded my head. My highly verbal daughter sounds a lot like your daughter in many ways.

DD15 is inconsistent in math. She can get all the homework 100%, and get a D on the test, all because of "silly" errors. This has actually gotten worse as the math has gotten more complicated over the years. I am in the process of really trying to figure this out, but our working hypothesis is weak working memory (maybe compounded by ADD) and just enough test anxiety that her WM starts to shrink. She came up with the idea of covering up all the questions with blank paper except for the one she's working on. I think it keeps her from getting distracted/overwhelmed.

ps -- dd is the most buoyant, happy child. I would never have guessed that she was anxious about anything, until she told me how she "self-talks" during math tests. Yikes.