Category: Learning disability resources

Math for the Visual Learner

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I have blogged before about my son who has APD (Auditory Processing Disorder).  If you have APD, it is quite difficult to learn things in an auditory way.  My son is amazing at Math but he was not understanding the material when I would use a normal “workbook” math curriculum.  I needed to find a Math Curriculum that was mostly visual for him to understand the concepts.

Teaching Textbooks was a great answer for what we were looking for.  Its a Math curriculum that is done on the computer.  My son went from getting almost every problem wrong to getting almost every problem correct.  Teaching Textbooks is a visual curriculum that will appeal to visual learners like my son.  The only thing that I caution parents on, is that Teaching Textbooks moves slower than a lot of other curriculum.  So, you would want to cover more material in the upper grades to match some of the other math curriculum out there.  The curriculum can be very repetitive which works amazing for someone with APD but might not go fast enough for other kids.  My older son who loves “workbook” type curriculum would be driven nuts by Teaching Textbooks because of the pace that they set.  Each child is different and has different ways that they learn best.

Another resource for the visual learner is Mango Math.  Mango Math is a company that puts together crates for each grade of various Math Games that reinforce math concepts that are being taught.  They are on the more expensive side because they are designed for a classroom but homeschool families do use them.  Each crate has 20-25 math games depending on the grade. The games are well done and its a quality product.

The use of different Math DVD’s have been very helpful in reinforcing what I am teaching.  Mathtacular is a wonderful series that goes up to 8th grade.  The videos teach math concepts in an understandable and fun way.  All my kids loves watching them.  Another Math DVD is TimeTales.  Two of my kids have struggled to learn their times tables.  TimeTales uses the clever way of associating stories with the different times tables to help the child remember their times.  I have found the more I can appeal to the different learning styles in my son, the more he remembers.  When I use visual, kinesthetic, and auditory to teach a concept, he is more likely to retain the information.

A Unique Learner

esther7dancingLeave a comment

My 12 year old son was diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder a couple of years ago.  The easiest way to explain what that is if you are not familiar with the term is a dyslexia of the hearing.  He cannot process things through listening.  This made it very difficult to learn how to read and write because of how phonics works.  He does read quite well but only because I taught him with a whole language curriculum.  Phonics don’t make sense to him because he has a hard time processing the sounds.  He is brilliant in science and math but reading and writing are still a struggle.

I found an awesome curriculum that is for dyslexic students.  It is called the Stevenson  Curriculum.  Stevenson Curriculum is created for kids with learning disabilities.  We have been using their language arts program.  It has helped my son quite a bit.  They use mnemonic devises to teach the kids how to read, write and spell.  If my son can associate a picture or story with a spelling rule or phonics rule, he is more likely to remember it.  Stevenson Curriculum is worth checking out if you are working with a student with learning disabilities.  Its a great resource.