[blindkid] Math for kindergarten

[Carol Castellano]

Hi Laurie,

I have a lot of reactions to this.  First, where is your daughter in 
general in her braille learning?  Can she recognize all her 
letters?  Can she write them all?  Has she started learning contractions?

Since literary numbers are simply the first ten letters of the 
alphabet with the number sign in front of them, I am wondering where 
your daughter's unsureness is.  Is the problem that she does not 
recognize the number sign?  Or does she have trouble remembering that 
when she sees the number sign, the character that follows it should 
be read as a number?

Is the problem in writing the numbers?  It seems to me that if a 
child can read an "a" in literary, she won't have much trouble 
reading a "1" in Nemeth, as they will look the same.  So maybe the 
problem is in writing them?

One thing to think about--are her classmates being asked to write out 
additions problems or only to write the answer on their 
worksheets?  If it's only the answer, then your child can do that, 
too, for the time being while she works on learning the rest of the 
code.  She can still look at/read the equations in her math book or 
worksheets.  If the teacher is writing equations on the board for the 
children to copy, your daughter should have a desk copy to look at so 
that she has the same opportunities to learn as her classmates.  Take 
a look at the Writing Math in Braille section of The Bridge to 
Braille for ideas on teaching all this.

I would try hard to pinpoint the issue (if there is one) and give 
your daughter some extra practice so that she can be learning the 
same things as her classmates.  I've seen too many times blind kids 
falling behind in math  (this was in fact the issue that sparked the 
writing of my last book.)

Hope these thoughts help.

Carol

Carol Castellano
President, Parents of Blind Children-NJ
Director of Programs
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
973-377-0976
carol_castellano at verizon.net
www.blindchildren.org
www.nopbc.org

At 08:15 PM 1/2/2012, you wrote:
>  My daughter is five years old in a regluar ed kindergarten 
> class.  Her TVI comes into the classroom for math as well as adapts 
> materials for the teacher/aid to use during a second part of math 
> later.  The TVI just said to me that the class is starting to learn 
> addition and that the braille math code is Nemeth. She said my 
> daughter does not yet have a solid understanding of her literary 
> numbers, so she doesn't feel comfortable moving ahead and teaching 
> her the Nemeth numbers necessary to write out addition problems. 
> They said she will be will be learning the concept of addition, and she will be
>learning this with manipulatives. She will not, however, be writing 
>math problems right now. They will of course still use the 
>appropriate math language (ie: ___ plus ___ equals ___) they just 
>won't be asking her to write it out right now. She will be 
>completing her work verbally, for now.  They are working on 
>identifying and writing literary numbers.
>
>I just want to make sure...Is this what others did?  Do you wait to 
>do Nemeth until there is a solid understanding of numbers first?  Thank you!
>Laurie Wages - mother of Hannah, Fredericksburg, VA
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