Teach the Brain Forums

hi
I am looking forward to know more about the dyscalculia from the perpective of classroom teacher. like how these children behave , what other kind of problems if any these children have? what do other children and they think of themselves......peer interaction. What is the reaction of teachers not trained well to teach and take care of the needs of these children........

thanks
love
bharti

I am working as a school-psychologist in Sweden, so your question is not answered. But I am involved in investigations of dyslexia.

bharti,
I'm a third grade teacher from midwest, U.S. I've also worked specifically with kids with learning disablities for many years. From what we know so far, dyscalcula takes many forms and is a result of a variety of processing factors. It is difficult to respond to many of your interesting questions without understanding more. Is this a specific child you are concerned about? Are these questions for another purpose? If we know more about your purpose it will help narrow the response. There are many excellent resources!
curiousgeorge

Hi Bharti,
I actually run a Dyscalculia Forum, where the questions that you have raised are discussed.
The first problem is that Dyscalculia is not widely known about so far, which creates a problem for students, teachers and parents.
A major complication, is that Dyscalculics are typically exceptional Verbal Thinkers/ Learners.
So the common response to their maths difficulties, is that they are either Lazy and Not Trying Hard Enough, or else they must be Stupid.

When a 10 year old child is accused of this, when they give the wrong answer to the question what is; 9+5=
How can a child respond?
They have no explanation, as they 'tried' to calculate the answer, but just couldn't do it? So it's not because I'm lazy or not trying hard enough?
So I must stupid!
I have over 700 Members on my Forum, where nearly everyone stated that their greatest relief in finding out about Dyscalculia, is that their is a reason for their 'maths difficulties', and that 'I am not Stupid'!
Though their 'maths difficulties' are made even worse, as anxiety and a phobia about maths then develops. Which in turn reduces their available Working Memory / Thinking. Making the difficulty even more difficult.

Though a major sub-type of Dyscalculia, is Visual-Spatial Dyscalculia.
Where difficulties with either or both Visual and Spatial Working Memory exist.
Resulting in physical coordination difficulties. So along with being 'bad at maths', they are 'bad at sports', and tend to be clumsy.
So self-esteem is severely effected.
Bharti, you might like to visit my Forum to find out more?
http://www.dyscalculiaforum.com/
Geoff,

You can also read our dyscalculia primer, which can be retrieved at: http://www.oecd.org/document/8/0,2340,en..._1,00.html

Cheers,
Christina

Children Are All Different
________________________________________
Today I have spent with two gangs of my grandchildren an ex wife and six grandchildren one daughter in law one daughter one son one ex employee who won together with his wife four million and a few hundred thousand pounds on the lottery.
(He and HIS wife paid for the new tooling and manufacture of my abacus one design) I opened a package from china addressed to me at my sons small farm,
I have arranged to send twenty abacus through normal post from china as a test of postal costs and efficiency, set from china on the twelfth of oct and received here on the 24th of Oct, not bad.

The ex wife said no one could use it therefore it would never work, any one can use it with a few minutes demonstration I said, (the usual WAR)
I called on the eldest child a girl just six years old, watch her learn this latest demonstration, learn to recognize three ways to demonstrate building one thousand, she read the first one thousand, second manner ten hundred by means of counting, third way beat her, nine hundred, ninety and ten thanks to some barracking from her grand mother, ok then just watch her divide 999 by three shown only once she copied it immediately, she will not manage that again said the ex, she did quite easily, her mother completely rejects my pleas to use the abacus with her (she works on reading only)

My sons eldest son is three and a half speaks haltingly and runs a mile from the abacus, his father has taught him to count to ten thank god, but will not try the abacus as a regular evening habit, his second youngest child just over two years two months was exited by all the abacus activity, as I clicked it madly he became totally exited by this activity and endeavored to copy and count he has not many words but is trying madly to speak, before I finished he was clicking up all the three columns and trying to count shouting ten as the last counter went up.

My other daughter is a speech therapist with an American training (working in Salisbury Hospital with stroke victims) She is more committed to early education little television lots of reading lessons and some abacus she can count to one thousand on the abacus just over four (Grandmother says she does not Know what a thousand is) SILLY GRANNY) she knows all her alphabet and reads lots of small words.

I have demonstrated my abacus to dozens of children it is virtually impossible
to fail to learn all arithmetic principles with it if the child has a caring teacher by the time it is seven and in many cases far before then with committed teacher,

MY OPINION IS THAT ANY ABACUS AND REGULAR FINGER COUNTING WILL CURE ANY DYSCALCULIA

John Nicholson http://abacusone.net/

hi
thanks for the link I will be visiting soon, I am searching for some researchable problem linked with dyscalculia. so far I haven't met any dyscalculic child.
bharti

Do you have access to ERIC online or at a university library?

Dyscalculia (not to be confused with acalculia) is defined as a specific developmental disorder affecting a person's ability to understand and/or manipulate numbers. Dyscalculia is often used to refer specifically to the inability to perform operations in math or arithmetic, but is defined by some educational professionals and cognitive psychologists as a more fundamental inability to conceptualize numbers as abstract concepts of comparative quantities (a deficit in "number sense"[1]). It is a lesser known disability, much like and potentially related to dyslexia and dyspraxia. Dyscalculia occurs in people across the whole IQ range, but means they often have specific problems with mathematics, time, measurement, etc. Dyscalculia (in its more general definition) is not rare. Many of those with dyslexia or dyspraxia have dyscalculia as well. There is also some evidence to suggest that this type of specific learning disability (SpLD) is partially hereditary.

:anyone:

I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THIS FOR TEN YEARS

The answer to this is the answer to all things educational.

WORDS and there meaning.


Some children are more privileged in there environment then others, i do not mean in a financial sense here i mean a pure environmental sense.

e.g. a child forced into selling ice cream at four years old will never suffer from

DYSCALCULIA dyscalculia


DO NOT GO TO SLEEP I AM GOING TO SPRING CLEAN YOUR MIND


I AM HAMMERING HOME THE IMPORTANCE OF THE HUMAN FINGERS



Simply because the human child is so capable of building its own vocabulary, its ability to speak and understand words naturally, we are totally unaware that there are technical areas where it is possible for a child to lose out on.

EVERY CHILD HAS TO TAUGHT THE MEANING OF NUMBERS FROM 1 TO 10

EVERY CHILD HAS TO RELATE THAT TEN TO ITS FINGERS JUST AS SOON AS IT CAN SPEAK


Any child taught numbers in this manner will never suffer dyscalculia.


But combining finger awareness with Abacus One prepares the human brain for technical thought by simple visual process.

THIS IS A SMALL SET PIECE


LOGICAL NUMERACY

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I know);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who. Rudyard Kipling

Simple arithmetic prepares the human mind for logical thinking.
The concept of quantity in regard to the measurement of everything within the human experience, from time, distance, volume, weight and value, both physical and economical requires perfect understanding of numbers.

If children are to be accepted as equals, equality starts with basic skills, if we are ever to enjoy a just world, where democratic countries can enjoy a peaceful and a sustainable way of life,
Simple universal education will be its starting point.

NUMBERS HOLD THE KEYS TO THE HUMAN BRAIN
AND THE KEY TO HUMAN LOGICAL THINKING

There is ten years work here

Lucy two weeks ago or so i got it, the penny finally dropped for me, i know i am a slow learner ten years for something so simple.

you are developed from a four legged animal just watch any one walking they move there arms to help themselves walk.

when the arms were legs and the hands paws the hands were flat on the floor.

so the hands naturally will lie flat on a table look at them, for a human being five is the natural number, dip the childs fingers in paint and print with both sets of fingers

move across the table as though you were walking, you will see sets of numbers always in five's brian butterwoth would say a natural numerosity,

so now we can hold up both hands, all we need to do is christen each finger clearly with the appropriate number as soon as the child can speak, once the child has grasped which number is represented by which name, meaning falls naturally into place, as soon as the child can speak we must do this, standard world practice every mother must be told to do this.

FROM FOUR YEARS OF AGE EVERY CHILD WILL HAVE TO BE GIVEN AN ABACUS ONE MODEL OR AN ABABCUS ONE MAP AND SEVEN STONES TO WORK WITH ON A 1 2 1 BASIS IN TWO YEARS WORKING 1 2 1 EVEN A DONKEY WOULD BE NUMBER PERFECT

EVERY CHILD IS BLEST WITH A MILLION YEARS OR MORE OF PERFECTION IN DESIGN FUNCTION THEY HAVE TO BE PERFECT

THERE CAN BE NO COST TO MY IDEAS WHAT I HAVE LEARNT SO SHALL I TEACH:pcprob:

This is a simple starting point for any child starting to speak, one is very obvious, five is the thumb, two has to be the second finger, three the longest finger, and four the last in the row of four fingers all very obvious.
I have just asked my son to concentrate on this exercise with a slow to speak late three year old. PLEASE TRY IT OUT. By working on one hand we should produce perfection easily. it must also be a good start for any child of any age with a problem. In previous studies with severe dyslexic six year olds once they had developed normal maths ability by using Abacus One their ability in reading quickly caught up with their class. :autumn:


POINTING WITH FIVE FINGERS

TEACH ANY CHILD TO NAME ITS LEFT HAND FINGERS BY ITS CORRECT NAME

ONCE THE CHILD IS PERFECT IN THOSE FINGER NAMES

PLACE ANY FIVE ITEMS ON A CLEAR TABLE AND SHOW THE CHILD JUST HOW TO

POINT WITH FIVE FINGERS

:pcprob: WHY CAN WE COUNT AT A GLANCE ANY NUMBER FROM ONE TO FIVE


Why can we count any number of objects, at a glance from one to five?

We are simply pointing with five fingers.

We can do this physically and we can do it mentally, it is inherent, part of our evolutionary inheritance.

The Russian abacus (schoty) is our best demonstration, of the human consideration, of this fact.


pring:


From a row of ten, four black beads are followed by two white beads and a further four black beads, we can then read any number on a Russian abacus at a glance.
The brain working instantly on a Russian abacus reads four black and one white as five, following instantly that one white and whatever black bobbins to relate to the number being read accurately and instantly.



ickly:





The Chinese abacus (saw pan) and the adapted from it Japanese abacus (srobone) also have an instant recognition system built into their abacus.








The two hands above the bar on the Chinese abacus are represented by two bobbins. On the Japanese abacus only one hand representing five is shown with one bobbin above the bar.

The effective layout of these three National abaci, allow them to be read as naturally and as quickly as we read words or symbols telling us the value of a number.
These three National abaci assist us to read larger numbers simply by isolating and identifying five in coordination with their appropriate decimal place.


The decimal order of the abacus alongside its individual column awareness allows a regular user to naturally read any number.

The nature of the difference in Chinese/Japanese written language and that of the Indian written language explains to some extent the use of the abacus until modern times in China and Japan.
Those far Eastern countries have always had a complicated way of writing numbers creating a situation similar to the Romans, where they used Roman numerals and an abacus throughout the Roman Empire, all three countries used an abacus with some similarities.

The Indians evolved earlier in utilising notation for numbers in their writing. At the moment anyone understanding arithmetic and India/Arabic numerals is capable of mental arithmetic, they find that notation in universal symbols is obviously easier then using an
Abacus.

FOR INTRODUCTION TO ARITHMETIC PROCESS HOWEVER AN ABACUS DEMONSTRATES THAT PROCESS VERY CLEARLY

We have a UNIVERSAL world system where using ten symbols have the same meaning as words in a thousand languages.



Abacus one is designed as a universal teaching tool it can be produced in any language what so ever.

There are only three columns involved for simplicity the left hand column is called the finger column because it clearly represents two hands together.

The centre column is described as the cat column, where the child associates the combined fingers of both hands being illustrated as a cat and the twin kittens called five and six. Emphasizing the twin values of the two hands and showing their relationship with ten the value of each counter in the centre column.

The third and left hand column of the abacus is known as the century column one further name to identify the value of one hundred.

Any child having learnt to identify each finger with its appropriate name will have no difficulty in appreciating that the left hand column clearly represents its own fingers. The centre column in multiplication result of one times ten. And the right hand column the result of the multiplication ten times ten.

Only two technical teaching resources are necessary to perfect the understanding and teaching of all arithmetic principals starting with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The fingers of both hands and abacus one.

:dazed:

:adder: :pcprob:


:choc:

Good morning from England Geoff, it is a very nice to have you back, as you noticed there is a letter from my daughter in Australia, she is living in Melbourne, arrived back in Australia almost as I was leaving Australia last year in late October, we have been at war for some time, but thankfully she appears to have married a very nice young Australian musicians of Chilean extraction and they appear to be quite happy. Of course in Australia it is always difficult with getting the right papers to enter it, young Europeans appear to be able to stay there for a year, and then move on, but in her case, she has returned to your country.

There were having a difficult time starting life together in a rented flat in Melbourne, so simply because she needed a little chash, she was more tractable than normal, and agreed to do me some research work, on a number of people, first of all she read everything she could about Maria Montessori, and then wrote me and fine essay on it, secondly she researched the lady in America who developed the L. abacus Mrs Joan Cotter
And finally she has just completed the short work, (posted here) on Brian Butterworth and his research.

From her personal essay it is easy to see that at last the penny has dropped with her, she can now understand what her father has been doing in the garden shed for 10 years, she has a degree in criminology, but very nature she is drawn more to business then towards crime, we only have one life and it is vital to spend it in doing something we like, something that we are really interested in and something that we live for day-to-day..

Of course I was interested in my farming and thoroughly enjoyed it, extending my business beyond the bounds of common sense, and unprotected from predators trading as a private person rather than a business Ltd.
Unfortunately the whole thing bit me, but it led me towards something that I have really enjoyed thinking about, something which I now regard as the most important thing that I have ever done, or our ever likely to do.

That is to become interested in the human brain, researching and thinking how it works and how we can encourage it to work perfectly, how we can ensure that every child on earth has an equal opportunity with their education, and from then on to throughout their lives, it becomes ever more obvious to me that simple mathematics is the key to the human brain.

In every society and that every age we use our fingers to count and tally with, time and time again I have been back to relating fingers to numbers, but from a mental point of view only, I was nearly there from the beginning, it was only after developing a system of rapid arithmetic using your fingers to count to 10, as system that I'll described as

“a sum a second

rapidfire visual arithmetic, the purpose of which is to establish visual appreciation of individual numbers, perfect spatial ability.

The one thing about mathematics that is most important, is potential accuracy.

In the end without being perfection in arithmetic, or having the individual possibility of perfection, we are simply going nowhere, so moving on from the exercise

a sum a second,

the penny finally dropped with me.

Because we all use our fingers to count with, and we all need to create numbers from left to right, before we transfer them into a column, as far as a young child goes, we do not need to hammer meaning into the words, all we need to do is christen each finger individually, of course one and 10 are easy, moving on from one and 10 number two and number nine are like brothers to one in 10, from there I moved onto the thumbs enough difference here to create an L. with the left-hand teaching a young child not only the fact that thumb is five but that is its left-hand, moving on from my kitten exercise twin kittens I was able to give that kitten the name five and the right-hand kitten the name six after the thumb, looking at my hands in the dark or half-light the difference in the finger lenths, mean that we have the number naturally once we associate it with the fingers, holding my hands flat and pressing them towards a wall on the edge of a piece of furniture, with my hands palm down, those are extensions from my ancestors front feet used as pads, but now developed into human hands, i have the middle finger on each hand extending beyond the others, of course every finger has a different length, we are so naturally aware of it, we completely ignore it.

Having divided their hands into twin kittens palm down, move them towards the wall only two fingers touche the wall, I have experimented on numerous friends asking them to do this with their eye shut considering that their fingers relate to ten from left to right very few of them even knew the name of the middle finger on the left-hand and only the Conservative member of Parliament for Beverley could tell me the number of the middle finger on the right-hand.

So we have a simple exercise here, we can create a visualization, and engage the mind to make a permanent memory instantly in an adult of the number of its middle finger of both hands, of course it is not a child we are teaching, but many children will learn this and remember it just as quickly as an adult, so now we have established the beginning and the end of the count we have established the middle finger of both hands, in reality we have an established number for the left-hand thumb and the right-hand thumb, we even have a plus we are permanently establishing the left-hand.

I was told by a neuro linguistic programmer that having been taught both left and right left me more mixed up then if I had only been taught the left-hand thank you Bill for this.

After years of not knowing how to relate to left or right without thinking of the side of the road that I drove on. I established a quicker method of learning left and right from producing an L. and an even quicker method while explaining that to Toney Buzan, where I happened to wink involuntarily with my left eye, from that I realised that I could think left immediately just by winking with that eye alone, it has worked perfectly for me to produce left immediately ever since, obviously a different part of my brain is giving a signal to the eye and I am able to identify left and right almost instantly.

When it comes to numbers of course, we need to establish numbers, and the meaning of those numbers perfectly, so when we have identified most of the fingers on our hands simply looking at forth finger at the end of a row of similar, clearly identifiable between the third finger the longest finger and the thumb, we can create individual recognition instantly of four, transferring the same situation in the opposite mode, we can clearly identify seven lying at the left-hand side of four fingers between something different
( the longest and middle finger) and the thumb that we name six we have a natural seven.



So earth shatteringly, we have a method of number recognition based on our hands.

The most involved human, in touch with a child learning to speak, is of course its mother, if we adopt this method of establishing the number of 10 universally, it means that every mother needs to be aware that all she needs to do is to teach her own child the

number /name of each finger

and leave it to normal human intelligence to establish meaning.

It is normal in a mother to try to teach her child to count first of all to 10,
a second stage to 20, and finally to count to 100, as far as a mother is concernd, this simple rote learning is the only vital mathematical thing, she is aware of unless she either is an educationally minded person, a paediatrician, a physicist, or a mathematician.

In my research on Abacus use, I wrote to Terence Tao a young Australian child, a mathematical prodigy of Chinese extraction. His mother was a physicist his father a paediatrician, Terence's IQ is to 220 which IQ fanatics considered to be one in a million.
My question was did you use an abacus in your early education, while he did not use an abacus in his early education, of course with a mother totally aware of numbers, he would have been taught numbers in relation to his fingers, at the earliest possible age, and was likely having natural language ability at an early age to developed a good understanding of numbers in relationships with its parents.

Most of us do not have parents on the one hand a physicist and on the other hand a paediatrician, but we all need to become perfect in mental arithmetic, and perfect in understanding mathematics, Brian Butterworth tells us that it is possible for almost all human beings to take their individual ability in mathematics to any level they so wish, I could not agree more with him, I see mathematics as a series of small lessons, which when they are taught well and correctly can ensure perfect arithmetic ability, all we have to do to establish meaning within numbers, is to teach every mother that she must teach Her child the name and number of every finger.


The principles of my educational format, the principles of the abacus and the alphabet LTD A&A

Are COPSL in reverse,

LOGIC SIMPLICITY PERFECTION ORDER CONCENTRATION

They have all to be used in all basic skills training.







:holiday:

:tourist:

THE AIM OF THE ABACUS AND ALPHABET

To build a universal system of teaching basic skills.

Applicable in any country in any conditions with virtually no facilities.

Starting with the question, what does Abacus One do?

It allows the child to transfer simple visual process in arithmetic into mental awareness easily.

It is foolproof.

Consistent daily use of abacus one effectively builds the neural pathways used in logical thinking and reading ability.

With the child’s own fingers we establish the count of ten.

Fingers first.
Creating the awareness of 10.
Rhythmic tapping ten.
Two initial exercises. The cat. With the twin kittens.
Learning the instant number and name of every finger.
One sum a second in adding fingers.
Transferring the concept of 10 fingers.
Transferring the concept of 10 fingers to the right-hand column of abacus one.
Transferring the concept of 10 into one counter in the centre column.
Transferring the concept of 10 times 10 into one counter on the left-hand column.
Abacus One is the child’s first personal computer.
The child finally transfers physical process to notation.

Abacus One is the child’s first personal computer, and until the child has established perfect mental arithmetic ability, only acquired by consistent practice, and demonstration both in and out of school. We use the abacus to reinforce perfection in counting every number to 100, and of course perfection in the times table which is slightly different, but perfection in the times tables creates the long-term memories for instant answers in mathematics for a lifetime.

Concentrated use of Abacus One from five to six years of age would normally expect the child to achieve an extremely high standard of mental arithmetic, and if consistent effort has been taken both within the school and the child’s own home, virtually all the times tables will be perfect, the child will be capable of doing sums in both addition and subtraction moving from the left to the right but initially as a counter working from the right to left.

Children need to be shown how to demonstrate Abacus One to each other, as well as working individually on test papers children can work successfully in pairs or small groups, bringing attention to different processes being used.

Teachers need to provide the child with worksheets which can be carried out as a preliminary homework situation, where the parents can assist the child easily to recognise what methods the child needs to utilise to do the sums.

The work sheets can be provided with and without answers, papers can be exchanged within the class in the mornings, where it is a simple matter to run throughout he marking. The child should be allowed two copies of the worksheet, in the early stages, where parents assist, and then child only.



:adder: :choc: :detective:

:choc: :autumn: JUST KEEP AT IT

LOGICAL NUMERACY
THE CRUX OF THINKING

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I know);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who. - Rudyard Kipling

Simple arithmetic prepares the human mind for logical thinking.
The concept of quantity in regards to the measurement of everything within the human experience, from time, distance, volume, weight and value, both physical and economical requires perfect understanding of numbers.

If children are to be accepted as equals, equality starts with basic skills, if we are ever to enjoy a just world, where democratic countries can enjoy a peaceful and a sustainable way of life,
and Simple universal education will be its starting point.

NUMBERS HOLD THE KEYS TO THE HUMAN BRAIN
AND THE KEY TO HUMAN LOGICAL THINKING

Just what is thinking , it has to be perfectly natural , we are recreating visual memories and the mental associations that those memories carry, even a child can think, we think in the manner of image in action, within our human dreams we associate thoughts that we would never consider in normal thinking, in reality when we dream in this manner our mentality is using pure imagination independents of any personal control, through the last ten years waking between five and six times regularly during my sleeping period, I have become increasingly aware that an imaginative dream represents only a third of my personal recorded brain activity. Exploring just how my brain processes information, searching for solutions, as made me clearly aware that the major part of the human brain works independently of the controlled natural conscious thinking that we need to do daily in order to survive.

Subconscious thinking is playing by far the most important part of our daily conscious life and during a great deal of our sleeping and resting period as well.
Most of us are fully aware that we can go to bed with a problem and wake up in the morning with a solution.
Subconsciously our short term memory builds knowledge in the form of permanent memory from the vast amounts of information that assails us throughout our daily lives in many forms, much of an individuals personal knowledge is acquired through reason, much of our instinctive reaction comes from both conscious and subconscious thought.

Many things we can learn instinctively, almost instantly, but we cannot learn instinctively and instantly to read and calculate without first having absorbed and established a great deal of vital personal memory, it is regarding the establishment of this personal memory that I have spent ten years considering,

Just what is the quickest way to establish permanent working memory of numbers, simply working with numbers is the only successful way we can establish permanent numeric awareness.

We can achieve this state quite simply, by highly detailed exercises that are physical processes in addition subtraction division and multiplication of numbers, we have to learn the meaning of a limited specialist vocabulary concerning the processing of numbers, accepting that each word we use is an idea in itself, we have to establish the meaning of numbers, take any child of five or six years old and utilisation of any abacus will provided that the child with awareness of maths processing techniques, developing adequately the child's concept of numeric value associated with the language utilised, relating to the symbolic representation of the numbers we use in notation.

If we are to use the human mentality to its greatest effect we need to start the process of numeric awareness just as quickly as the child is able to speak, although I have previously considered that the child needs to associate its fingers with numbers, it has only become crystal clear to me, that any child that does not appreciate its own hands and fingers can never be efficiently taught, number appreciation starts with language and the physical form of the two hands.

Fingers first, abacus hands, standard practice in establishing numeric awareness perfectly. The simplicity of arithmetic understanding (the understanding of) from my research work brought me to a well proven conclusion that numbers are the key to the human mind.

Unlocking the technical thinking ability that we as humans beings all possess naturally, is best achieved by simply developing the child's awareness of numbers through the earliest possible association of the fingers with the numbers one to ten.

Once I was fully aware that children who never developed simple numeric awareness, were for ever restricted in natural development, not only in number awareness but in reading ability as well, the importance of providing a simple standard practice universal demonstration became essential.

Everything that I had learned and considered for ten years came together in the importance of this finger demonstration, culminating in the simplicity of the child developing the ability to process arithmetic sums by utilisation of the fingers at the rate of a sum a second.

There are many simple exercises, which need to be incorporated within the finger and numeric value association,
practical demonstrations which are easily carried out, utilising the child's ability to associate different ideas together, using as a mnemonic concept of the imagination the two hands together as a cat, and the separate hands as the concept of twin kittens clearly establishing the left-hand twin to be called five, illustrating the letter l therefore establishing a mental truth as to the left and right, simply by concentrating on the left, we are ensuring permanent memory of left.

But we are also ensuring permanent memory of the perfect five,

The thumb holds that simplicity within the child’s memory,

As does the name of the twin kitten, which creates an automatic understanding of the meaning of five, during the time i was considering in what manner a child may best retain the memory of each finger as a permanent rote memory, I discovered that simply by putting the flat hands, pointing to the edge of a table or any flat surface gave an adult awareness of the middle finger of both hands, establishing a clear permanent memory of the number value of the middle finger of both hands, a permanent memory for an adult, and permanent memory for a four-year-old child, especially when that Child is taking part in a physical exercise involving the fingers in relation to counting,

First of all the child needs to understand the perfect five, then of course it needs to understand that it possesses to perfect fives, and when we include the concept of the toes, it is in clear possession of a mental picture totally aware of the concept of four perfect fives, establishing just as quickly the mental concept of 20 as it establishes the language to describe the concept of 20, as the child develops the language necessary to illustrate mathematical processing, it develops the associated mental comprehension of that mathematical processing.

Numbers the key to the brain, are becoming established in the form of clear neural pathways, pathways which are essential for the child to consider the technical thinking vital throughout the child's life, starting to understand that each hand as five fingers, and that together the two hands represent the number 10, it is easy for the child to a appreciate the magical value of five, and the miracle value of 10, as the child is regularly exercising the fingers producing the different numbers that are possible to be produced from the fingers, becoming fully aware of its own processing ability.

Working with abacus one, cements the child's ability to mentally conceive five, to mentally process the fact that five and five produce ten, to then conceive that ten can be represented by a one, the child is becoming aware of place a value, simple physical association first of all perfecting mental awareness of numbers in relation to the two hands, progress to physical and mental awareness of numbers being produced and processed on the abacus.

The concept of numeric processing is so simple to illustrate on an abacus, and unbelievably difficult for a child, to comprehend as a mental process, without first having established a simple concrete visuals/mental concept of numeric process.

unny: :yes:

:tourist: THE LIITLE THAT WAS LEFT:tent:

I have written and rewritten multitudes of mathematic examples of children establishing mathematic awareness, the standard practice of perfect demonstration utilising the fingers for numeric awareness, continuing the numeric awareness by utilisation of the abacus in practical working exercises, quickly establishes the mental perception of mathematical process, which itself develops into a permanent mental arithmetic ability,

In defence of rote learning.

Rote learning provides the child with the instant ability to consider question and answer, this is best demonstrated by the times tables, the child memorise the question, and the answer, once that memory is clearly established, every time the child hears a question concerning the times tables, the child automatically provides the answer, the child provides the answer from memory, but a child taught properly with proper understanding of the value of its two hands, that has been taught clearly to process numbers, utilising the facility of abacus one, is clearly in possession of a total awareness of the mathematical process necessary to achieve the answer.

Within language itself, we naturally utilise the process of rote learning, many of the sentences we utilise in description, are in themselves no more than rote learning.

In normal conversation we speak naturally, without awareness or pre-thought as to the individual words we use, to explain the concept we are describing, or to make further inquiry about the concepts we are being made aware off, when we take part naturally in the multitude of daily one to one teaching and learning experiences, which enables the human society to develop, through the sharing of knowledge.

In exactly the same manner, in which I am using a speech recognition system in my desire to clarify ten years research, associated with the understanding within ten minutes that the utilisation of an abacus laid down a mental map within the mind of any child using one regularly.

I have now redeveloped it, I have considered the importance of it in education, I have illustrated its value in establishing numeric awareness the very basis of technical thought, I have developed a simple low-cost universally applicable teaching resource, which no child should be without, perfect physical demonstration of numeric processing is possible by utilisation of the child's own fingers and the use of abacus one,

Simple notation and advanced mathematical concepts relate exactly with the three columns of abacus one, perfecting the demonstration and understanding of the abacus, and the necessity to build numeric awareness into the mentality of the child utilising the fingers at the earliest possible opportunity. This creates the possibility of universal education, the cost is minimal, the techniques can be acquired within one days tutorial, establishing the techniques as standard practice
will develop international awareness, international acceptance and practice of these simple finger and abacus demonstrations will clearly establish perfect mental numeric awareness.

Preparing any child to utilise the European alphabet, to learn English as a first or second language, developing reading ability within English and other European languages, introduced when the child is developing the ability to copy the sound of language, any language and the ability to associate that language with meaning, learning to speak mathematically in a second language, is the logical first step in establishing natural ability in that language.

Every four year-old child, in every country would develop basic skills ability from finger and abacus demonstrations, establishing at the same time the sound of the European alphabet in English or any other European language.

:rainy: JUST KEEP GOING WE ONLY HAVE TO SAVE ONE CHILD THEN WE CAN SAVE ALL

FROM WHAT ?

IGNORANCE

EVOLUTION GAVE US THE TOOLS SURELY WE CAN PROVIDE THE METHOD

:adder:

:am: pring:

THE ABACUS PROVIDES

THE MEANING AND PATTERN OF NUMBERS

WHICH ARE THE SCAFFOLDING

BY WHICH WE BUILD THE NEUROLOGICAL PATHWAYS

WHICH LINK THE CONSCIOUS BRAIN WITH

THE VAST HIDDEN ABILITY

OF A SUBCONSCIOUS CONSTANT WORKING POWER HOUSE

THAT IS CAPABLE OF VISUAL MEMORY AND REASONING

WITHOUT CONSCIOUS AWARENESS

CAPABLE OF DELIVERING SPEECH

WITHOUT APPARENT DETAILED AFORETHOUGHT

NUMBERS AND WORDS CREATED BY AN ABACUS

CREATING A VISUAL WORKING KNOWLEDGE IN ARITHMETIC

WHICH WE SEE SIMPLY AS A WORKING SYSTEM

VISUALISING

AS IMAGE IN ACTION

:hols:-----------------------: ---------------unny:

:anyone: :tourist:

THE SPEED OF THOUGHT

AN UMPTEENTH ATTEMPT TO WRITE A TEACHING MANUAL FOR ABACUS ONE

A SPECIFIC ATTEMPT TO CREATE INSTANTANEOUS ABILITY IN ABACUS AWARENESS
INSTANTLY FOR ENGLISH SPEAKING TEACHERS

THE DEVELOPERS CONCEPTION as of 19th April 2007

John Nicholson
With the awareness that the human brain is a consistently developing entity, anything beyond this point will be changed at will.
Please use this as a starting point template for yourself.
What do I know about the abacus after ten years of studying it.
What do I know about my own brain after sixty six years seven months and four days of using it.

The correct answer to both questions is very little.

So just how can I teach teachers to teach arithmetic, it easy for me, I have, just as you have a perfect brain, crafted by millions of years of evolution, and so as every human child. Nature has crafted us to create instant awareness, nature has endowed every one of us with the ability to teach and learn.

We have in fact only three modes, teaching learning and thinking.

Descartes the famous French Philosopher was said to have said I think therefore I am, which in fact is a misquote for what he really said, which was a human truth. “ I am therefore I think”

THE BRUTAL TRUTH
You can not teach anything properly until you know it well.
This is why I have only developed the confidence to give written explanation to something so simple in function, and something so powerful in concept, after ten years of study.

We all perfect everything we do, to our individual ability level, that level of course, is subject to personal will, so my will as regards teaching you to teach many, the secrets of the abacus, is as strong as my will to live.

Within any twenty four hour period, you can perfect your teaching mode with my guidance.

IT ONLY TOOK ME TEN MINUTES TO RECOGNISE THE POWER OF THE ABACUS, and ten years to tell you this.

In the final stages of understanding the power of the abacus to organise human thinking in the simple form of the decimal system initially, so building the mental structure to understanding everything,

I have to leave entirely to your own will.

I know that I have to show you how, and that means a visual exhibition eventually, it takes ten diagrams to perfect your ability to subtract.

Initially please start by reading my Paper Abacus one and the perception of numbers.

OK
YOU HAVE READ THAT

I AM PICKING UP MY OWN ABACUS

AS A STARTING PIONT OF DEMONSTRATION
VIVID VISUAL VISITS TO VIVID VISUALISATIONS

NOT ONE IN A THOUSAND TEACHERS WHO ARE ENGLISH OR AMERICAN HAVE ANY IDEA OF ANY ABACUS PRACTICAL USE AT ALL

YES THEY ALL KNOW WHAT AN ABACUS IS.

YES NONE OF THEM ARE MOTIVATED TO TEACH A CLASS WITH IT.

SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN TAUGHT THEMSELVES HOW TO USE IT.

I STOPPED GIVING TEACHERS ABACUS. THIS IS WHY

THEY COULD NOT TEACH THEMSELVES HOW TO USE IT AND THE WOMEN MY OWN FAMILY VERY MUCH INCLUDED ARE THE WORST OF ALL.

SO MY CONCEPT OF UNIVERSAL USE AS A MAJOR BLOCK ON IT. What is it?

Ignorance
.
That is its strongest demonstration.

We are all ignorant.

We are all consistently blinded by ignorance.

To demonstrate Abacus One correctly we have to be proven perfect.

TAKE THE ABACUS ONE SIX YEAR OLD EXAMINATION. But from both left and right
THE RECOMMENDATION LIST

First make yourself fully abacus aware.
Always start a child from the left counting everything. Why?
Perfect maths in mental and notation is our aim.

We all develop a personal best in arithmetic, you will enhance your own understanding of arithmetic and that of every child you will ever teach in the future, far beyond your own ability just now.
Your motivation to learn is always restricted by fear of not understanding, only perfect steps make a perfect ladder.

The head of every primary must be motivated to perfect their personal abacus awareness, before they introduce Abacus One.

We obviously learn most by doing something, so a number of one to one teaching/pupil exchanges by the head and the mathematics expert are needed to perfect the teaching mode.

We are consistently perfecting individual teaching technique, by trial and error.

Individual personal motivation of every child, is what you are about to teach with an abacus.

No head of school worthy of their own title will ignore this technique.

Prove your personal ability before you demonstrate the abacus.

Give an abacus to the worst mathematician, and the best mathematician in the oldest age group class, within the school and allow them time to work together, on their individual development of teaching technique.

Let them teach a teacher in every class from top to bottom of the school under the watchful eye of the head.

My concept for perfection involves family assistance in establishing early homework practice, every four year old shall have their own counter at home.

At last we start to learn.
You are at the back of the book and this the answer, I can do little more with words.

Demonstrations in easy order.

Use two fingers to demonstrate the eleven times table.
Use one finger to demonstrate the ten times table.
Tip the abacus on its head to demonstrate one hundred and eleven times ten.
Add ten and subtract one to demonstrate the nine times table.
Put up one and demonstrate multiplying it by 10 by putting it down and ten up.
Put up one and demonstrate multiplying 100 x 1 and 1000 x 1
Demonstrate counting in five's properly to 1000
Divide 1110 by 2 and 5 and 10
Divide 999 by 9 and 3
Divide and Multiply Add and Subtract


Once your fear of feeling stupid by not knowing how to use it disappears your confidence in demonstration will start to develop increasing with every child you teach.

So now you know it, you only have to show it.
Abacus One for every child.John Nicholson
:pcprob:

curiousgeorge Wrote:bharti,
I'm a third grade teacher from midwest, U.S. I've also worked specifically with kids with learning disablities for many years. From what we know so far, dyscalcula takes many forms and is a result of a variety of processing factors. It is difficult to respond to many of your interesting questions without understanding more. Is this a specific child you are concerned about? Are these questions for another purpose? If we know more about your purpose it will help narrow the response. There are many excellent resources!
curiousgeorge

hi
just joined this site and am hoping for some ideas for teaching learners with math difficulties and suspected dyscalculia. most resources seem to be designed for children. does anyone have any ideas or resources for young adults. hope you can help this student teacher please.........

Hi ip2pls and welcome here.
I run a Dyscalculia Forum that you might like to have a look at.
Where you can get an idea of the different sub-types.
An important issue, is to identify how developed their 'sense of number' is?
Which is a common area of difficulty.
Also commonly, Dyscalculics have underdeveloped Visual-Spatial thinking skills.
Which results in difficulties with doing Mental Maths.
This is often balanced by strong Auditory thinking skills.
So they rely on verbally talking through a maths calculation, in their mind.
Which is not generally the way that it is taught.
Geoff,
http://www.dyscalculiaforum.com/

My daughter is now aged 8,5 and is currently finishing her third year of primary education in Belgium.
We are bilingual parents (father EN, mother FR) and each talk to her in our native language.
Aged 2, she was already excellent in her mother tongue (full sentences) and although she replied to her dad in French, she understood everything in EN.
Later we bought a dog, disandvantaged as we told her, the dog could only speak EN. She is now fully bilingual.
What about DYSCALCULIA?
Well we concentrated so much on the languages - and neither of us being geniuses in math - we weren't concerned about the lesser results in math.
In Belgium, children leaving kindergarten have a test for testing their psychological abilities and make sure they are generally fit to go to primary education.
One of her two teachers pointed out that she thought our daughter had some difficulties with the handling of numbers (she used her fingers where other kids were already capable of figuring out mentally what it meant). The other teacher dismissed that.
During the next 3 primary years (she is now finishing the 3rd year) we realised that she was still using her fingers a lot, and repeatedly, teachers told us how slow and absent-minded she was. Indeed at home, it seemed to me that homework that were meant to take 10 minutes, were lasting forever, with need for repeated explaining.
A few weeks back, results in math started to plumet. During the Easter break, I asked my sister (teacher in the same school year) to help her catching up. Her assessment came as a shock to us : our daughter's level in math was stuck somewhere between the 1st and 2nd learning year. Anything to do with abstraction was totally foreign to her. Immediately, we thought about dyscalculia (a few months back, I got myself interested in that, but could not really find any kind of proof as all children can present such behaviours at some point in their education, and if you start reading symptoms of different illnesses, you could easily imagine you have them all!).
Besides, her teachers, whom I had been asking if they spotted any problem in math, kept telling me that it was merely my daughter's fault : too slow, to absentminded... "if she started at the same time as the others, all would be weel, besides, what are you worried about, she could do better, but her marks are still above 80/100". What can you do with such a comment. We were reassured. Until of course teachers told us her results started to go down (with still the same comments "she does not study enough, she does not listen to the question she's absent minded, she's easily distracted by other pupils... And boy were we even tougher with her). But when my sister's comments came, instantly we knew our instincts had been right all along.
So then what?
Well we saw our pediatrician who asked for a full orthophonic assessment.
This will be done on 24/5/2007.
In the meantime, I have informed the teachers, the principal of the school as well as the "conflict management" teacher what was heavily suspected. And suddenly, all the attitudes are changing.

In all this, the only teacher who has ever been attentive is the kindergarten one. Had we listened to her, we could have had more empathy and accompanied her earlier. Of course dyscalculia can only really be assessed at this age, so until now, it would probably just have been a strong guess.

So teachers, if you are out there, and you recognize in this story something vaguely familiar, don't hesitate. Talk to the parents about your doubts.
Children with learning difficulties have the same intelligence as other. Sometimes even more as they find all kind of tricks to hide their difficulty (including hiding homeworks...).
Hope this is of help to whoever is interested...