Originally Posted by HowlerKarma
Originally Posted by bluemagic
Going back the original question vs. direction this post has taken. My older DD has language processing LD and while learning math operations with numbers wasn't a problem for her word problems were a HUGE issues. I'm not suggesting your son has an LD but I figured I could share what i did with her. These are a basic idea's but sometimes basic suggestions gets overlooked. Read the problem out loud if you can (hard during a test), underline the important numbers & their units, cross off the unnecessary verbiage, circle the words that describe the operation. If it's homework trying to explain the problem and/or what you don't understand to someone else even if it's the cat or dog often works wonders. Basically slow down and treat it like a puzzle to be decoded and practice, practice, practice.

I love the idea of having him try to write his own word problems.

Drawing sketches helps, too-- though this gets to be a better strategy in algebra and beyond. Most scientists I know always work problems this way. It helps, sometimes, to draw a picture and label it with the values from the "word" problem, and then convert directly into symbolic mathematical representations from there.

Not always time in a pinch on an exam, of course-- but I suspect that this is behind the notions implemented in Common Core regarding "visual representations" of math. It does help when it comes to applied problem-solving.
This is, of course, the procedure taught in the Singapore Method. Only more effectively than in most CC textbooks. wink


...pronounced like the long vowel and first letter of the alphabet...