Hi all! I know there was a thread that was at least tangentially about this not long ago, but I couldn't find it quickly, and decided it wasn't worth a lengthy search. Thanks for your patience with me...
I woke up this morning musing about DS6's math issues, and I was hoping for some thoughts, opinions, and suggestions from all of you.
Some background: We're HSing, and I have found that DS6 and I tend to have trouble working together on math. He's SOOOOO SLOOOOOW! It has made me crazy. It just seems like it should not take an hour to work three problems. And it's not that the concepts are too hard for him. He just dawdles and forgets where he is and has to start over and...It's been frustrating to watch. Before we had him tested with the WISC, I was not handling the situation with grace and patience, I must admit. (In my defense, his public school teachers didn't handle it very well either, not even the good teacher he had!)
Happily for us, the WISC helped me to better understand what's going on with him. His Working Memory tested at 123 and his Processing Speed at only 109, versus his GAI of 144 and his Perceptual Reasoning of 151. I realize this is not unusual--in fact, I think it may be the norm, no? But it has become clear to me that I am seeing the effects of this divide in DS6's math efforts.
DS6 starts a math problem that is challenging (but not too hard for him conceptually speaking), yet he can't work fast enough to hold it all in his head, and so he loses his place and winds up lost in the ether. Before the WISC, I just saw it as his dawdling and messing around; now I see that it's related to his abilities and he can't help it. It looks more like a 2E issue to me now, though I don't think it really qualifies as such, since he's not below average in any area. (Is that right?) Anyway, my patience level has gone way up, so that's good. Math is not the battle that it was quickly becoming. We're both relaxing.
This is all good. But I'm wondering if rather than simply accepting that this is how he is, should I be working with him to improve his speed and memory? Are there things I should be doing to boost these areas of relative weakness so that he's not hampered by them? If so, what? Specific resources would be great to get from you, if that's called for in his situation.
I'm not really all that interested in hot-housing for coding speed. But if this discrepancy in his abilities is handicapping him--and I do think it is--then perhaps I should be working with him.
Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?
Thanks! I appreciate all the help I know I'm going to get. I love this board!
