ABCs of Learning

April is designated as Math Awareness Month, and it is the perfect time to reflect on your child’s math skills. With an emphasis on literacy standards, parents tend to notice early struggles with letter recognition and handwriting. Therefore, they more easily pick up on the signs of emerging learning disabilities in the areas of reading and writing. However, we do not want to leave out math!

The following are indications of a possible learning disability in math:

• While the child has learned basic math facts, he/she struggles to quickly recall the answers during “beat the clock” or “mad minute” timed tests at school.
• The child has trouble carrying out multi-step calculations, such as double-digit multiplication or long division, in the correct order.
• Even after frequent review, the child has trouble grasping basic math concepts.
• The child struggles to understand and solve word problems. Sometimes he or she determines the answer simply by adding together all of the numbers in the problem.
• The child does not seem to understand the signs and symbols of math.

If you notice that your child struggles in these areas, you may wish to meet with an educator at Child and Family Development. I enjoy consulting with parents, doing comprehensive assessments, and providing therapy for children with math disabilities.