Dyscalculia Treatment - early intervention
My mother in law gave me ONE piece of GREAT ADVICE when my son was diagnosed dyslexic, “Early intervention”. This advice was passed on by her dyslexic specialist friend who said EARLY INTERVENTION was ESSENTIAL and boy, was she correct. I did seek help for my son but only ONCE a week and it wasn’t enough.
Only when I found a place called ‘Lindamood Bell’ and enrolled him on their highly intensive daily routine, did things finally click into place and he began to start reading. However, this is a VERY expensive and time-consuming option but it does work for Dyslexic children but what about Dyscalculia treatment?
Dyscalculia treatment
The same is true for Dyscalculia, the EARLIER you do something about it the EASIER it is for the child. Early intervention means all the pain, fear, anxiety and mess that Dyscalculia can cause will be avoided. And daily intervention is better than once a week!
When your child is so young - there are steps you can take to help them integrate and perform better when they do start daycare, kindergarten or pre-school.
STEP ONE
Make them happy and comfortable around numbers.
Everything should be a game - life is a game after all! So why not make it fun? Inject enthusiasm and fun into anything to do with numbers and if your little one gets it wrong - be kind and gentle. This world, after all, needs all types of people to make it tick and where there is a weakness in one area there will be strength in another.
STEP TWO
Try new and fun ways of counting. When eating something that can be easily counted like berries for example - count as your child puts them in their mouth. If they are old enough to understand - ask them to count as they are eating them too.
STEP THREE
Go to sites like FABLES WORLD where there are fun animations with characters that look like the numbers. Often - children who struggle to recognise symbols, which numbers are, can easily learn when replaced with something more recognisable that looks like the number. In time they will replace the character with the number but still receive the same learning.
DID YOU KNOW: Our brains have the ability to reorganise themselves to form new neural connections THROUGHOUT life. It’s called NEUROPLASTICITY. Neuroplasticity allows the neurons (nerve cells) in the brain to compensate for things that don’t work properly.
Eg: This means you CAN connect neurons to turn a Dyscalculia sufferer into someone who CAN cope with maths. They develop brain strategies to efficiently improve the difficulties associated with dyscalculia.
However, if you don’t do anything about Dyscalculia it will NOT improve and LIFE will get HARDER for the sufferer. As children grow up and maths lessons get more complicated and more mental maths is required in adulthood, sufferers self-confidence and sense of worth will continually be challenged way more than the average person, so don’t leave Dyscalculia treatment until they are teenagers, tackle the problems earlier and life will be so much easier.
I speak from experience, having suffered the difficulties of Dyslexia and Dyscalculia all my life. Everyday events that ‘normal’ people find easy and don’t take up mental space becomes complicated and challenging to those with dyscalculia finding every day incredibly challenging, mental arithmetic, reading 24hr clocks, budgeting, driving and planning.
It’s also demoralising and difficult not knowing your basic skills and believing you are stupid. When in fact your IQ levels can be very high but will grow larger with Dyscalculia treatment.