Smart Kids With LD

Tuesday, April 5, 2011
1:00 to 3:30 p.m., Room 1-D, Legislative Office Building
300 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT

A Legislative Forum:
Reading: The Engine for School Success

The We Will Read Coalition in Connecticut sponsors a forum on reading on April 5, to promote effective reading instruction for all children, including those with dyslexia

Opening Welcome

Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield of New Haven, Chair of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus

The Impact of Reading Failure
Ralph Smith, Executive Vice President, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Baltimore
Among his many accomplishments, Mr. Smith has helped design the Casey
Foundation’s comprehensive effort to help communities improve outcomes for
children by strengthening families and neighborhoods.

Teaching Reading-What the Research Tells Us

Dr. Marilyn Adams, Visiting Professor at Brown University Author of “Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning
about Print,” Dr. Adams has also designed and written three empirically proven instructional programs

Teachers: What if No One Taught Us How to Intervene?
Teachers discuss exposure to reading intervention and needs

Reading and Competitiveness–the Business Concern
Joseph McGee, Vice President of Public Policy and Programs, Business Council of Fairfield
County

School Leaders and Systems Reform in Reading
Dr. Jordan Grossman Principal, Canton Intermediate School
Joseph N. Amato, Principal, Wendell Cross Elementary School, Waterbury

Higher Education: A Key Partner to Turn the Curve
Dr. Maureen Ruby Assistant Professor of Education, Eastern Connecticut State University

The Role of the Family in Love of Language Parents discuss their role in learning.

What Communities Can Do Community agencies, libraries, pediatricians speak.

Discussion and Wrap-Up

Agenda subject to change

By Miriam Cherkes-Julkowski, Ph.D.

Children with ADHD typically have trouble with math, which requires sustained attention, good working memory (how much information can be held on tap at one time), tracking (keeping track of where they are in a problem), and self-monitoring. As students move into higher grades, math performance tends to decline.

Students with ADHD not only make mistakes; the mistake may vary with each reworking, leading teachers to conclude the errors are “careless.”

The problem, however, is not carelessness but a lack of sufficient attention resources. To intervene effectively, teachers and parents need to avoid blaming the child.

It is helpful for these children to learn basic math facts—addition, subtraction, multiplication tables, etc. Few students with ADHD know their number facts. Most depend on counting up or down from those they know already.

Standard drills and repetitive worksheets aren’t helpful. Interactive instruction (computer games, teacher-led activities, etc.) is likely to be more effective. In addition, board games can be adapted so that the number of moves is determined by getting the right answer to problems on flash cards.

As math becomes more difficult it becomes more important to provide instruction that helps the child understand and therefore, commit the process to memory. Calculators make getting the right answer easier only when the student understands how to set up the problem and knows how it should be worked.

Two key ingredients make math instruction work for children with ADHD: Setting up a problem that the child really wants to solve, and capitalizing on understanding to reduce the need for sustained attention.

For further information on math learning disabilities see LD + Math = Struggles