Hi, I am currently doing wave 3 intervention with a severely dyscalculic year 4 child. I have had to track back to 1YR for her addition/subtraction. She has just done her optional year 4 assessment and has no idea how to add 3 single digit numbers together without equipment such as cubes and even then she needs suppport - things are that bad. I have only just started the wave 3 intervention but wondered if anyone else has any good strategies/resources that might help?

Hi, sorry I can't be of help. I have never had to work with a child diagnosed with this. The following link offers some links for maths resources. Hopefully, this may be of help to you

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Is this an in house diagnosis or has the child been formally assessed and did she start her school life in your school? I'm asking this because it's hard to get a recognised diagnosis of Dyscalculia.

I've worked with a number of children who have needed wave 3 intervention. Some of them have even had to have a program set up for their individual problems. We had one child recently who we screen for Dyscalculia. She had come to us as a Y3. Her previous school mentioned no specify problem other than she was a slow learner. Yes she was but it was only after working 1:1 maths with her for the best part of 3 months that the CT and I began to get a better understanding of what had happened at her previous school. She'd been kept down in a rec class instead of going up into Y1 and as a Y2 she was still working as a rec/Y1 some of the time and as a Y2 at others times. None of this was in her records and either the parents didn't know or didn't want to tell us.

Some maths areas she could do very well. Shape being one of them, time another, as long as you didn't give her word problems. We made the decision to take her back to reception level for her Maths and I worked with her at her pace. She also had extra numeracy time and I gave her parents a copy of what I aimed to cover for that week. I also gave her mother examples of what we would be doing and how to accomplish it. Sometimes parents are a child's worst enemy when it comes to maths Most of them don't realise how things have changed and show their child the way they themselves were taught which can lead to a child getting very confused.

Anyway none of this really answers your question. Strategies.

Use graph paper to help her organise her work clearly. Encourage one digit per square.

Repetition is very important, use rhythm or music to help memorise.

Break problems down into several steps

make sure she fully understands mathematical language. subtract = takeaway = difference

Use of colour coding for mathematical signs it gives her something else to latch onto.

Give her uncluttered work sheets if you give her them so that she isn't overwhelmed by too much visual information.

Most importantly, be patient, never move on to she fully understands the concepts of what she is currently covering.

Be generous with praise and have a reward system in place. This can be an effective motivator, as long as the rewards are meaningful and appropriate.

I used to sit in my maths classes in school wondering why I just didn't get it and everyone around was. I have different ways in doing the maths. I now know that you cannot expect to move on unless you get the first bit. I ask lots of questions and have realised that if I can't 'picture' the sum in my mind I will never get it - this is something to do with my learning style. I have found that repetition is very important - when it may take a student 20 sums to get it, I will have to do 50. Breaking the work down into easy portions helps. If you pick a knitting pattern up and looked at it all at once you would never attempt it, however just read the first line, do it and then the second and so on. The language of maths is different and can take time to get your head around it, a dictionary of maths is really helpful. As I find multiplication tables difficult because of the sequencing I have a flexi-table that you can fold, these can be ordered online. I found How to Detect and Manage Dyslexia by Philomena Ott very helpful in giving strategies. I used this with my son and he and I now both have GCSEs in maths.
Sorry this is so long but I hope it is of some help.