← Atlas of Difficulties
S-23
The child can't solve a two-step problem
Type: verbal
What the research says
Solving word problems is the most difficult kind of mathematical activity for children with dyscalculia, a complex activity that combines verbal, thinking and memory processes. This activity is built up in stages: visually reproducing the problem with realistic drawings → reproducing it with abstract graphic diagrams → doing it mentally. Modeling is the best method for working with children with dyscalculia.
Lalaeva R.I. Dyscalculia in Children, p. 30 (2005)
Exercises at home — free
Draw the problem
Builds: Visual modeling of a word problem
You need: a sheet of paper, a pencil or counters
- Read the problem: “Masha had 5 apples. She ate 2. Then she bought 3 more. How many does she have now?”
- The child draws it or lays it out with counters: first 5, takes away 2, adds 3.
- Only after that does the child write down the operations: 5−2=3, 3+3=6.
- Next level: a diagram instead of a picture — rectangles and arrows.
- Final step: the child solves it in their head and checks it with a diagram.
Lalaeva R.I. Dyscalculia in Children, 2005, ch. 4
Build a problem from setups and questions
Builds: Understanding the structure of a problem, the link between the setup and the question
You need: a card with the setups, separate cards with the questions
- Write out the setups: “There are 12 birds in one flock, and 3 more in the other” and “First graders made 12 bird feeders, and second graders made 3 more.”
- Write the questions separately: “How many bird feeders did the second graders make?”, “How many birds are there in the two flocks?”
- Read the setups and the questions with the child one at a time.
- Task: “Which setup goes with which question? Make a real problem.”
- Solve the resulting problem together.
- Ask: “Why don't the other questions fit this setup?”
- Harder: the child makes up a question for the given setup on their own.
Baryaeva L.B., Kondratyeva S.Yu. Dyscalculia in Children, 2013, p. 76
Without help
- Skips one of the operations or does them in the wrong order
- Can't check the solution — has no internal model of the problem