Oh No – Now I have to learn all about Dyscalculia Too?!

I have known since the Dyslexia issue came up, that my daughter had problems with maths too & that this was a common issue for 40% of dyslexics – but her reading was my priority & that is what I concentrated on.  This issue is all but nearly solved now – reading is not an enjoyable experience for my daughter & still tires her out – but she can read anything, and does.

However, although I have come some way with her maths using numicon, I know I haven’t really solved her issues.  This was brought home to me yesterday when my daughter told me that she had ‘gone down in maths,’ ‘what do you mean?’ I asked, ‘I was 3 last term & I’ve gone down to 2c or something’ she said.  ‘But it’s alright, the teacher said I’d just made silly mistakes.’  At first I tried to put it out of my mind, I’m hugely busy at the moment so it’s just a bit too much to deal with & in any case, maybe she had an ‘off day’.  But I know in my heart of hearts that’s not true.  It’s just another example of the teacher misunderstanding the issue...I don’t think she said ‘silly mistakes’ to be mean; in fact, it actually shows that she believes that my daughter is capable of more – BUT ‘Silly mistakes’ is a bit like ‘just needs to read more’, or ‘needs to concentrate more’.  My daughter makes ‘silly mistakes’ because she DOES NOT KNOW HOW NOT TO!  What seems ‘silly’ to most people, are just how a person with dyscalculia sees numbers and methods of numeracy...So, here I am, back to the internet, books, training courses.... to find anything I can get my eyes, ears & brain around to help my daughter & my tutees in their struggle with dyscalculia – aghhhhh!!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!