Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion speed issues, help me understand

My DS 6 scores very highly on processing speed on the WISC (and on all other areas). So why is it so very hard for him to memorize multiplication tables? No 2e issues. I don't understand. Can anyone explain?

First, I'm not sure that processing speed would really correlate with multiplication tables.

Second, I really believe that memorizing math facts isn't that easy for some people- gifted or not. DH (who is HG+) admits that he still does not have most of his math facts memorized. I've got mine cold, but I also have synesthesia with numbers which I believe helped me.

DS8 has worked math facts for two years now and still does not have them. He gets them excellently for the short term (WM 141 probably helps...) and can breeze through a test that he's prepped for. But within a week those facts are gone. My plan is to keep him working on them in fun ways (timez attack, etc...) but to keep the pressure low and realize that it's not the end of the world if he continues to mentally calculate versus using pure recall.

Huh! I wonder if DD's synesthesia helped her with math facts (which are a breeze for her). I'll have to ask her if she thinks so, though she might find it hard to know.

I've got a fast brain but I don't know all my times tables and ever have. Numbers just fundamentally don't make sense to me, they have no extra-ness associated with them to make them memorable. I'm not dyscalculic, but not far off it. I don't remember any numbers, in general, but I have an excellent visual memory.

I have always been a numbers person but multiplication tables were a major obstacle for me and still are. I ended up remembering some and deducing the rest from the ones I knew. I didn't see the point in automatically memorizing them when I could easily calculate them. I got through math and science gifted middle school with straight As without ever really needing them.

It took me years to achieve complete fluency with anything like this that required cold memorization.

My brain just isn't wired NOT to 'think' things through. It's a real pain.

A bigger pain, though, is the stupid (IMO) emphasis that our educational system often places on fluency with math facts. Because that isn't "mathematics" but far too many mathy kids wrongly label themselves "stupid at math" before they have ever really even SEEN any mathematics...


all because they can't do the **#$%^ed "Mad Minutes" or whatever one wishes to call this torture-fest.

High enough WM and processing speed means you don't NEED to memorize them. I have a PhD that says so.

If they are pattern based and looking for big picture then brute force memorization probably is not going to get it done. Learning multiplication tables through understanding patterns is going to be much, much easier. Of course there is also a somewhat independent of intelligence bit of the brain wiring that affects a person's general sense of numeracy.

I'd suggest this PDF as a technique to try (also a number of threads here going through the same question)...

http://www.visual-learners.com/support-files/nbf-6-9-10.pdf

Well, one possible explanation is very simple - he's 6. The ability to regurgitate math facts quickly is not the same skill that's called on in the WISC Processing Speed subtests, and from what I've been told children aren't going to become fast at math facts until they're developmentally ready for it to happen - could happen for some kids at 5, but for others not until 10 or so... and that's regardless of IQ.

It's also helpful to look at how your child is being "measured" re math fact speed - is he being timed while handwriting or is he being asked to answer verbally? Even for a child who has no fine motor issues, I'd think it might be tough to write down math facts as quickly as you can calculate them at 6 years old.

Best wishes,

polarbear

My explanation was going to be that multiplication tables are boring, but I thought others might have more thoughtful answers

Timez Attack was mentioned in passing, but I want to mention it more prominently - DS loved it, and it seems to be soundly based in the way it asks questions and gets them to practise. Definitely something to try.