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My son is struggling with memorizing math facts, specifically multiplication facts at the moment. Math concepts are rarely an issue, however memorization/recall is a struggle. Working memory and processing speed are significantly impaired, so I'm looking for programs or ideas specifically designed or particularly useful for children with ADHD.
DS8 is in 3rd grade (Montessori), and whatever they are doing is not working. We've tried computer programs, including online programs, but because ds is quite anxious, it turns into nightmare every time. His anxiety goes through the roof if he is timed, and I have yet to find a program that eliminates the time component but still holds his interest.
It doesn't have to be a computer program. I just tried that first because I thought it would appeal to him. I learned using the traditional "multiplication table," but I have a feeling that will not be the answer. Thanks so much for any advice or suggestions you can offer.
Montessori schools traditionally don't focus on memorization. You may just need to do flashcards daily and buy a Math Minute book to try timed math tests. Our son doesn't have ADHD but has a documented processing learning disability. He has extended time for tests but has never used. Doing flashcards every day for 6 months has helped alot, plus doing some Kumon workbooks. It could just be practice, practice, practice.
have you tried " Multiplication the fun way"? My dd was able to memorize fact with the stories. Right now she can recall with just a "key word". She is allowed to have her "key word" sheets for high stakes testing...it is helpful for her.
Our DD hates drills but enjoys math; nonetheless learning math facts was kind of a drag. Two essentially free and easy math fact games we learned about from her first wonderful teacher were math War and math dice. In each you play two at once (cards or dice) and perform a math operation on the resulting numbers; you can keep score for the highest cumulative result or same but deduct a point if a player miscalculates. Operation can be specified or not. Much more enjoyable for DD than worksheets or flash cards.
My son finally bought into memorizing his tables when I had him keep a graph of his time getting though a set of flash cards (0 - 12). I said when he got under 3 min three times in a row, I'd buy him a book. Took a bit, but he's much faster with them now!
Does he really need to memorize his multiplication facts yet? Some kids just really aren't ready developmentally for quick math facts until they are a little older - some as old as 5th/6th grade. My 2e ds who has dysgraphia was really challenged with memorizing math facts, but he had a huge leap where he suddenly got much quicker at it that I think was associated with maturing executive function as he neared puberty (that's all just a guess on my part, but I think no amount of making him try to memorize them so that he would have quicker recall would have worked until he was at the stage where his brain was ready for it.
My dd8 has a weakness with associative memory, and she's actually not that bad with math facts (compared to my ds at 8).... but fwiw it's been recommended that she be given a multiplication chart at her desk at school and allowed to use it for math work during class until she has the facts committed to memory. Our ds is older but has an accommodation to be able to use his calculator for math facts etc. I don't think it's unreasonable at 8, if you have a child with a disability such as ADHD, to pull back a little bit on the math facts and give them an accommodation, then try to focus on quick recall of the facts 1-2 years from now. But that's just me
Thanks for all the ideas! I think he'd really like the dice game. Also, polarbear, I agree that he may just not be ready. If he had a multiplication chart (cheat sheet) that he could use when doing other math operations, I actually think he'd eventually memorize them just from exposure. That's how he is with many things. If he refers to the chart on a regular basis, I think he'd eventually rely on it less and less. Anyway, if anyone has other ideas, I'm all ears. Thanks so much for the suggestions you've already provided.
No matter how instantly available information becomes in the future, I believe memorization will always have a place in education. However, that place need not be back with the dinosaurs. Memorization tasks benefit greatly from electronic assistance. Let me explain.
Some foreign language students think nothing of memorizing large numbers of foreign words, and some medical students think nothing of memorizing large numbers of medical terms. Their trick? Electronic flashcard programs that adjust the frequency and timing of the cards in a manner that neuroscience has found most conducive to the creation of long-term memory. What the programs do, in effect, is show a person a particular flashcard and then ask how well the person knows the flashcard. When the flashcard next appears depends both on when it last appeared and on how well the person reported knowing the card. New cards appear frequently; known cards appear less and less frequently as time goes on.
To learn more about electronic flashcard programs, I recommend you visit both the Anki and the Pauker websites. Anki is from Japan; Pauker is from Germany. Both websites offer free electronic flashcard programs, request donations to support their work, and explain why spaced repetition is an effective learning strategy. See http://ankisrs.net/ and http://pauker.sourceforge.net/ The latter website explains, “Pauker uses a combination of ultra-short-term, short-term, and long-term memory. You can use it to learn all the things efficiently you never want to forget, like vocabulary, capitals, important dates, etc.”
I haven't tried these, but I'm looking forward to it. Smiles, Grinity
Thanks Grinity. I use spaced retrieval therapy with my dementia patients on a regular basis. Why it didn't occur to me to apply the same theory to my son's math fact memorization, I do not know! ; ) The only thing is, he nearly has a panic attack when you pull out a flash card! I paid for the math program Timez Attack, and he freaked out about the first few times we tried. I called and they told me how to remove the timer, but you can't go to the next level unless each level is completed with a timer. With spaced retrieval, it's not about speed or response time. It's about gradually spacing the time between presentation in order to promote storage from immediate memory to short term memory to long-term memory. I'm going to try this for sure! Thanks for sharing. Hope you are well!
My DS8 3rd grade(PG (with average PSI) & ADHD)enjoys Archademic Skill Builders (you may need a log in because he does it at school too) because they have some games that are not timed.
A few media tools that we have used are a multiplication CD that puts the times table to 10 to music and there is also an old school house rock video that he really enjoyed.
Another accomodation that we have used that has been very successful has been to incorporate movement into the practice. For instance,DS and DH would be playing catch with the football, I (or DH if I am not around) call out the problem, DS runs out for a pass, answers the problem and gets the pass. He absolutely loves tthis type of learning (actually they both do).
My dd found math vs zombies on the ipad and is actually willing to work with it! She gets frustrated with herself, but for whatever reason she just keeps at it. I am so proud of her.
Are they doing timed tests at your son's school? Both the Montessori schools my children attended had weekly timed multiplication tests. However, the second school timed the children from zero...on up, versus "how many can you do in two minutes"? That slightly different approach really worked. THey were always working on lowering the amount of time it took to finish with the least amount of errors.
Thanks Grinity. I use spaced retrieval therapy with my dementia patients on a regular basis. ... It's about gradually spacing the time between presentation in order to promote storage from immediate memory to short term memory to long-term memory. I'm going to try this for sure!
Thanks JenSMP - we are well here and glad to help. I find this fascinating...can you share some more about spaced retrieval therapy? I've been wanting to crack the 'too gifted to learn multiplication facts for a long long time. I still don't know my 7's times table well.
Grinity - thank you so much for linking to the flash card systems, we downloaded and starting using Anki earlier in the week and I am super impressed. It's too early to tell yet what impact it will have but it certainly seems like it will be an ideal life long learning tool for my daughter. Amazingly simple and sensible approach to the stuff that just has to be rote learned, and one system that will work for anything from spelling or times tables to capital cities, anatomy or japanese characters.
My daughter did not cope very well with timez attack, she is simply not fast enough, even with it slowed down, to get through final retention. Using timez attack she did get to be one of the best in her class at times tables but she really hates using it and she does need to keep reviewing those facts for now I think. Using Anki she has no time pressure but is having to learn about being honest with herself about how well she knows a fact if she wants the software to aid her to learn it better. Brilliant system.
Being given the answer is still timed and interferes with her learning. She will think about the fact that the answer is going to pop up before she is ready instead of thinking about the answer. Generally she does actually know the answer and she's not fast enough at finding the number keys to beat timez attack.
Very interesting stuff there ! Thanks Grinity for the flashcards softs .. I guess I should use it myself to learn English ...
It is funny we did the same as Deonne but with soccer. It did work one day. We also started a book which should be the French equivalent for "multiplication the fun way". It seems to work. Today, I tried the mindmap way ... DS turned it into "Star Wars" icon
ANyway, it is a real struggle to get DS7 into multiplication facts. We also tried online games. But the results is always the same : what is known one day may be forgotten the next day in a completely randomized way. At the present time, 7*2 is 13 ! A month ago, it was defenitely 14 .. Sometimes, we are so desperate with making him memorizing multiplication facts that we wonder if it is not useless...
Last edited by raoulpetite; 04/12/1203:45 PM.
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Problems learning to memorize multiplication are a real red flag for dyslexia, I'm sorry to say. This interesting page tells you many dyslexia symptoms: http://www.dyslexiavictoriaonline.com/inofdy.html
Also, you can find story-based flashcards on Amazon. Each multiplication "sentence" is made into a picture, which is easier for some kids to memorize. It also helps to figure out how he learns. If he's an auditory learner, perhaps songs?
It's slow, but I told my son - everytime you learn, but don't practice, you will forget. But the good news is that you will learn more easily next time, and hold on to it longer without practice, and each time you relearn, it will go in better.
I know it seems hopeless, but please don't be discouraged. Perhaps a 'time capsule' to be able to judge what can be done today and compare to 6 months from now.
I also think that sometimes a kids learns a wrong fact, and then has to foget it before he can learn the right one.
Maybe to go back a step to practice skip counting by 2s and don't work on 7*2 for a day or a week. It worries me that he doesn't have a 'seat of the pants' feeling for odd v. even numbers. Although 7 is so 'ultra-odd' that I wonder if he doesn't give 13 as the answer because 13 is another 'ultra-odd' number.
Is he better with 2*7?
I used to have messy writing as a kid. One of the reasons my Math sheets looked extra messy, is that I got the idea in my mind that an 8 should be twice as big as a 4 which should be twice as big as a 2. So basically, digits have personalities for me - the odd numbers vaugely male, and the even numbers vaugely female. I wonder if you DS has his own meanings of digits that are interfering with his learning of math facts.
Come to think of it, 7 and 13 should be related in some fashion!
Wow grinity, are you some kind of god or what ??? A very interesting answer once again ... I will think about all this with DW. Actually, 7 and 13 are succesive prime numbers ... I did not realize that ... I guess it is just pure coincidence ... Anyway, we never succeeded in making him count by step of two. HE is defenitely not confortable with the odd an even concept.
Speaking of dislexia, my son's therapist also tols us that dyslexic kids usually have a lot of problem learning multiplication facts. I will take a look to the story-based flashcards (I hope it exists in French too ...) because I tried Anki today, but he found it no fun.
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Well, I am wrong. 7 and 13 are just prime numbers, not successive. 11 is prime too ... AS long as DS does not give me 17 instead of 18 for 2*9 ... ANyway, it is still quite strange, since at the beginning of his learning, there was no problem with 7*2 and 2*7 being 14. It turns noww to be invariabily 13 since a month or so. It has probably something to do with dyslexia.
Last edited by raoulpetite; 04/15/1207:20 AM.
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Are you only doing "2-D"/flat/static (whichever word you prefer) type things for the multiplication? A multi-sensory or 3-D ideas might help if you haven't tried that. With my DD it helps for her to see the equation on a card or PC screen, but then make her own groupings with lego pieces or abacus etc. the association of real objects seems to help lock in the fact.
Maybe somewhere in this document there are some ideas? Or another doc on the site.
merci beaucoup bzylzy .. I will check those links and doc.
Today, I made Star Wars Characters Anki flashcards which I merge with multiplication tables ... I do not know if it makes him learn those facts better but at least it makes it more attentive (let's say less bored). DW found it a bad idea to mixed things.
Last edited by raoulpetite; 04/15/1211:54 AM.
___________________________ Sorry for the English ! ________________________
And here's schoolhouse rock in English showing skip-counting on your fingers.
My son seems to be memorizing his addition facts by using addition to add larger numbers and money. I guess the multiplication will be the same. So next I will have him start filling in the "multiplication charts" on grid paper. He knows several skip counting. And doing the number line skip counting has given him the size of the numbers he's counting. Then after he's filled in a few of the charts for a while I'll show him how to use the charts to do multi-digit multiplication. I read online that they should be very solid with place value and multi-digit addition before multiplying the bigger numbers. I read about this stuff a whole lot more than I teach this stuff, lol. So I can know the next step.
Youth lives by personality, age lives by calculation. -- Aristotle on a calendar
Actually, DS has problems with skip-counting even by steps of two. I think that we should probably get back to skip counting before multiplication as you suggest.
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Raoulpetite...Try it with the multi-sensory (or other mixed) approach. Alot of people like your DW don't take well to this, but a linear approach is not the best for non-linear thinkers!
Your DW should try doing a jigsaw puzzle with my DD - she would probably find it very stressful! But DD's methods work wonders for her when she's allowed to follow that path.
bzylzy, you exactly come to the point. Each time, I tried something unusual (mindmap, star wars flashcards, use of unusual fonts with dragons or so, ...), DW tells me that he needs linear learning, without any source of distraction ... Just pure black and white formula written on white paper. I do not find the force to "fight" against that, because there is no way that I can argue. But, the fact is that I succeed in making him work without too much fight and that I do not really care about the fact he actually records things in his brain or not ... I quite agree that he may learn better with no mixing, no mindmap, no fun, ... but in my mind the most important for him is pleasure doing things.
I feel like stealing JenSMP's topic. I hope she won't take offense ...
Last edited by raoulpetite; 04/16/1201:42 PM.
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Here's how I do it. I draw this on the whiteboard.
I tell him, "this is the x 5 ='s". "your pattern is erase four, leave one, erase four, leave one".
I walk away, he does this:
Then he fills in the multiplication facts from the number line. This is supposed to teach them the size of the numbers they are working with while they memorize them. The skip-counting songs help so they can check their work. For example my son just counted wrong while erasing so that his answers were 5, 10, 15, 26. He caught it immediately and came told me something was wrong because of a skip counting song. (he doesn't always catch it).
Youth lives by personality, age lives by calculation. -- Aristotle on a calendar
I also hope we haven't stolen JenSMP's topic but I tried to word things about multi-sensory and non-linear because I think the idea suits ADHD as well.
That's neat, La Texican...very inspired.
I personally believe in the learning styles thing (everyone has certain strengths and to use those strengths to learn is the most lasting and also the most pleasant). You can't have it your way all the time in life, but for helping a child at home you can know or learn their strengths and try to reinforce (or re-teach) the material in the way that suits them best. I think the child appreciates it also.
If I have to look something up alphabetically (or search in the library) I always sing the alphabet song from Sesame Street or other things (my DD and I both like that "ninja e" song from the Electric Company). And when I see two vowels in a row and it's English, I remember my 1st grade teachers' little picture of two vowels on a walk, holding hands, and the first one is saying "SHHHH...I'll do the talking" to the second one.
It's just a flash in the brain, and of course I don't sing the alphabet song out loud...in public...but it's in my head and gets me where I need to be. So who cares how I remember it and if it's not that black-and-white or traditional?
How about a "General Store" game? Pick a variety of "goods," assign each a cost and sale price, ranging from $1-$12, then put together simple "orders" and have him figure out the bill, as well as cost to the store and profit. After he figures out three or four bills, have him add the profit from those sales together to see how much the store made that day. You don't need a time limit on any of it, and the transition from addition and subtraction to multiplication is fluid. It's the "Lemonade Stand" method if you think about it.
Concrete association in something like register math is very powerful, and layering levels of success and motivation using the concept of gain makes the child feel useful, like they're learning how to use one of Dad's tools so they can help him instead of drilling on seemingly abstract number tables.
If he's into games, you could try the one so many people my age learned a ton from, The Oregon Trail. There are modern versions of it, even on iphone/ipad etc. I'll tell you, even the most easily distracted kids quickly learned what two wagon axles and 20 lbs. of grain cost verrrry quickly!
That's just my two cents, I was ADD/gifted/dysgraphic and that was what made the most sense to me back then.
My DS8 3rd grade(PG (with average PSI) & ADHD)enjoys Archademic Skill Builders (you may need a log in because he does it at school too) because they have some games that are not timed.
I second this. My DD8 (also average PSI) struggles with her times tables and sometimes refuses to study them, but we tried out the multiplication grand prix last night. She was very nervous at first racing three other people, and was losing some races, but I kept encouraging her and pretty soon she was getting 3rd and 2nd place. Her self confidence and fun grew right before my eyes, until she ended the night having won three races in a row.
Granted, it's not perfect in terms of giving her the range of problems she struggles with, but some sort of software like this this could very well be the key for us. It was amazing the difference in her from merely studying flash cards to doing this and witnessing genuine progress.
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