I must teach an autistic girl.

[arithmetic]

Hi people
I'm an experienced and effective teacher of maths - to normal people. But I'm in trouble, I think.

A senior man of my extended family ( I'm Maori) asked me to teach his 15 yr old daughter, because she cannot calculate the change she should receive at the shop. "We know you're brilliant".

Whereas, I know from my own experience that information can NOT be pushed into me, and I imagine that it must be the same for this child.
"Sweetness" has been living overseas with her Mum, who is a professional remedial teacher, for the last few years, and is reported to have made no progress whatever. She does not retain the learning.

My own experience might be relevant. When I was younger I was really driven to succeed in some kind of work. I studied for years to gain professional skills in engineering. I floundered for a long, long time, learning the grammar of mathematics, while not really understanding how saying things in math means something in the real.
There came a moment when the mathematical descriptions of things suddenly clicked with my experience of the real world.
I had had difficulties uniting my understanding of the abstract with my experience of the real. When I clicked, my understanding became grounded and it all began to mean something.

Things "clicked" for me. Are such things ever likely to "click" for our little girl? She will be here in a few days... I'm trying to get ready.

The Big Question:
Does anyone have any advice at all on how I might proceed?
I'd really like to hear from some girls on the forum please please. This little one, whose name is too distinctive to mention, is in real trouble.

 

[Captain Caveman]

How does she think?

What non-mathematical subjects is she good at or ok at?

Why I mention this is because it may give an idea of how her mind thinks as to how to teach her basic maths in a way that she can grasp.

Example with me and my Mum as we both differ in the way our minds think in maths.

I am very much a picture person in that as someone reads something to me (A story from a book) I will immediately turn it into pictures as if I was really there or as if I was watching TV. I can design things in my mind and know they are about 80-85% likely to work before trying them out and I can design multiple parts to something and put them together in my brain IF THE THING INTERESTS ME. (If not, I would struggle).
The way I do maths, is I can do maths the normal way if I can surface think, but any deep thinking and I have to turn to visual pictures of dots in my mind, and I can not do this with letters. Only numbers like one sees with domino's or dice which is why advanced maths was a struggle as I had to give the letters numbers to picture them.

My Mum could read and write from a very early age. Two and a half onwards. By the time she was six she had read most of the books in her local library which was easy for her as she lived opposite it and her aunt ran it!
For her, she has to do maths by writing out any sums in word form, so where I would do it in picture form like this" :+:=" (And I would bring the groups of two dots together in visual form and then hold them in my mind while I count the individual dots to come up with the answer, she would do it like this "TWO PLUS TWO EQUALS" and somehow work out the answer. For her, it has to be in written and not numerical form for her to understand it and calculate it. Both of us are slightly higher than average in IQ level).

Now if one can work out what she excellent in, one may find a way to adapt that to use it so she can do basic maths... But what will not work is if she is into art (Or another example if she is into something else) by painting a sum on a picture as one will not have understood what I mean by adapting things to how people think. (Doing this will just bring frustration. Try painting dots instead and then counting them would be a means of helping someone who's mind works visually to do maths...).

It is about finding how her mind will work.

And finally, sometimes touch helps. Coins are different sizes. Blind people can add up and subtract by feeling the coins. Now just because she may not be blind, touch and feeling could be highlighted, so it might just work? Likewise colours of coins can also be used. Is about finding ways to help her in a practical way, as let's face it, around 99.9% of the maths we use in our practical daily lives involves buying and selling for the majority of people. Is only a smaller percentage of people who use maths in jobs where money isn't involved. I have met a number travellers (Gypsies) who can't read or write BUT they are good financially using money! Actually expert! BUT no part of what they do in their mathematical calculations is ever written down, and yet they are sharp as razors in their monetary calculations and I am not joking!

[I hope you did not mind me writing as I am a man. I just wanted to give ideas which can help, and the key is that once one can find out how her mind thinks with a hope to invent a suitable way to help her, do not do too much at a time... As with me, I had to do two part learning in maths. What I mean by this is a teacher could in one lesson get me to do something and go over it and I would do it again and again. But come next lesson on another day and it would be as if I had never been there the lesson before and he would have to teach me all over again. It would take a few goes before I could do it on another day on my own... BUT when I left education it kinda went! Languages with me is worse! I am told by foreigners that they liked using me to learn from as I keep to simple easy to learn words and I speak slowly so it helps them learn to speak english, so I am glad I come in useful! ]

 

[arithmetic]

I'm looking for all answers, Captain Caveman - definitely including yours.
Thank you

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

In teaching specific skills to people with varying abilities, I’ve found that turning it into a game can help.

For arithmetic, using actual money is a good tool. Not play money. Real money. For the very basics, I would put a coin on the table. If the person could identify the coin, she got to keep it. Most students learn their coins quickly with this method.

The next step is to put two coins down and ask for the numeric total. If they get it right, they get to keep the coins. Rather than a number, I would also accept a higher coin for the right answer. For example, if two nickels were on the table, I would want to hear the answer 10, but I would accept a dime.

FWIW, I am female, retired now, but with more than two decades of teaching children with special needs. And I used my own money for these games.

 

[arithmetic]

In teaching specific skills to people with varying abilities, I’ve found that turning it into a game can help.

For arithmetic, using actual money is a good tool. Not play money. Real money. For the very basics, I would put a coin on the table. If the person could identify the coin, she got to keep it. Most students learn their coins quickly with this method.

The next step is to put two coins down and ask for the numeric total. If they get it right, they get to keep the coins. Rather than a number, I would also accept a higher coin for the right answer. For example, if two nickels were on the table, I would want to hear the answer 10, but I would accept a dime.

FWIW, I am female, retired now, but with more than two decades of teaching children with special needs. And I used my own money for these games.

I can't imagine a more helpful reply. Thank you so much
I'll try this game soon.

 

[Rodafina]

Does anyone have any advice at all on how I might proceed?

I would recommend talking to her about it. During your first teaching session, you could spend some time asking her about how she likes to learn and what she likes to learn about. Encourage her curiosity in the topic and work with her, trying first her ideas to figure out how she learns best.

It sounds like possibly there may be some emotions around this where the topic has become frustrating for her because she has tried to learn it without success. A gentle and affirming approach that builds her confidence while also giving her some agency over her own learning might be helpful.

Also, I would say don’t be afraid to try all sorts of different things even if some of them seem outlandish. Even if some of them don’t work, one might stick and it would be such a valuable lesson for a young autistic person to learn that if a traditional way of learning things doesn’t work for us, it doesn’t mean that we can’t learn. We can keep trying and find our own unique and effective way of learning and doing things.

Good luck to you. Sounds like important work.

 

[arithmetic]

Thank you @Rodafina
This certainly will take some very careful and gentle handling.
Other than @WhitewaterWoman's excellent suggestion above, I've also been thinking of baking, which has plenty of opportunities to introduce calculations.
The fatal trouble with most of the ideas which readily come to my mind is that they involve too much money and/or preparation.