Math U See Alpha and Autism

[~Summer~]

I am starting MUS Alpha with my dd(9) very soon. This past year we did MUS primer...and that is exactly where she needed to be. My ds(8) did MUS Alpha this past year so I am familiar with the program.

I have some concerns with the mental math strategies since everything has to be very concrete for my dd(9) to understand. For example...when they learn to subtract the 8's and 9's...they pretend there is a ten in between. So 17-9 would become..."how many is between 9 & 10...1" then "how many is between 10 and 17...7" then add 7 plus 1 to get the answer.

These strategies have been great for my ds(8) this past year. But I know my dd(9) is not going to be able to do these abstract strategies. Should I just have her build the problem and work on memorizing them...and forget about the mental math portion?

[Cadam]

yes, I would just have her build and memorize. The little tricks are great for the kids who can use them but they can be confusing. Just leave them out and let her memorize.

[bookwormmama]

My son is 7 and is doing Alpha right now... he has Asperger's. He builds and memorizes too... I don't worry about the mental math portion for him and he is doing great with it!

Hope that helps.

[TraceyS/FL]

I haven't stressed the mental tricks in Alpha either - she eventually has remembered some of them, but we stick with building them and the memorizing comes (i can't dwell on that either because of a short term memory problem - i've found just adding extra practice worksheets from the website helps her get them without knowing she is memorizing them). But for her she's not "getting it" until she can build it without prompts.

It's been slow.... but she is getting it and not dreading it!

[dtsmamtj]

I would let her build and memorize also. We also had our son skip the expanded notation of numbers: 150 = 100 +50 and then your put the next number expanded underneath before adding, etc.


T