Attention, Memory and Math
Monique Cunin
Fall 2011
Outline
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
What is a learning disability?
Characteristics
Attention
Memory
Attention and Math
Memory and Math
Impact on Life Skills
Assessing Math
Strategies for Helping
Resources
Further Use
What I Learned
What is a learning disability?
• Learning disabilities are a group of conditions
that make it difficult for a person to learn and
retain new information.
• Areas affected:
– Academics
– Social Skills
• To receive services under IDEA a student must
show a significant difference in IQ and
achievement.
Characteristics
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Poor cognition and metacognition
Low academic achievement
Poor memory
Attention problems and hyperactivity
Poor social skills
Poor self-concept
Poor motivation
Debilitating mood
Adaptive behavior deficits
Disruptive behaviors
Attention
• Being able to stay focused on a relevant task
• Students with learning disabilities may
– Focus on other things in the environment
– Be unable to focus on a task for an extended
period of time
• Inability to pay attention to a lesson = a lesson
not fully learned!
Memory
• Working
– Storing information in the short term while working
on a task.
– If a student can’t store the information short term,
they will not be able to recall it later.
• Long-term
– Information that you can recall, days, weeks, months,
years from now.
– If information did not make it into a student’s working
memory, it is not in their long-term memory.
Attention and Math
• If a student is unable to pay attention to a
math lesson:
– They may miss information
– They may miss an important step
– Missing these steps can cause them to struggle in
later math lessons.
• Many math classes build upon previously learned
material.
Memory and Math
• Working Memory
– If a student cannot remember how to solve a
problem,
• They may practice doing it incorrectly
• Long term Memory
– Students may struggle to solve future problems
because they can’t remember how to do a
previous problem.
• Example: single digit addition to two digit addition
Impact on Life Skills
• Students who struggle in math may struggle
with
– Managing Finances
• Balancing a Checkbook
• Paying for groceries
• Pay for social activities such as
– Eating out
– Have limited job opportunities
• Must be able to do basic math to work in even
minimum wage jobs.
Assessing Math Skills
• Formal
– Woodcock Johnson III Normative Update Tests of
Achievement
• Calculation, math fluency, applied problems
• Informal
– CBM
• EasyCBM or Intervention Central
– Ask students questions as they are working
– Quizzes
– Daily Journals
• Solve a teacher problem
• Write about how they solved it
Strategies to Help
• Attention
– Keep attention of all students
• Hands on activities
• Student engagement
• Opportunities for all students to respond
– Dry Erase Markers and Desks
• Manipulative
– Limit distractions in the room
Strategies to Help
• Memory
– Review skills necessary for a new skill you are
introducing
– Make sure students practice correctly
– Chunk information
• Mnemonics (Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally), FOIL
– Decide what it is relevant that your students
remember
• Calculators can be requested as an accommodation or
modification depending on the material.
What I learned
• The specific characteristics of learning
disabilities can affect how a student learns
math.
• Classroom strategies and accommodations
can help offset these.
Further Use
• Techniques and resources will be used
– To enhance existing curriculum
– Improve teaching
Resources for Math Practice
• Math Playground
– http://www.mathplayground.com/games.html
• Has games that students can play.
• Discovery Kids : Web Math
– http://www.webmath.com/index3.html?campaign
=flyout_students_webmath_k8
• Shows students step by step how to solve problems
Bibliography
•
Mercer, C. D., Mercer, A.R., & Pullen, P. C.
(2011). Students with learning problems (8th
ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.