Books on Dyscalculia

Also see ebooks for dyscalculic learners here.

The Dyscalculia Toolkit   4th edition

This collection of 200 teaching activities and 50 games is the recommended starting point for children who struggle with maths. The ideas are based on the author’s experience in schools, working with dyslexic, dyspraxic and dyscalculic pupils, but all the suggested strategies are equally suitable for teaching the basics of numeracy to any pupil aged 6 to 14.

The Dyscalculia Toolkit covers:

• Early number work with numbers under 10
• Basic calculations with numbers above 10
• Place value
• Times tables, multiplication and division

The latest edition contains extra activities and games and an editable set of pupil tracking sheets, as well as very detailed tables mapping each activity and game to the relevant numeracy topic and teaching points. Ten new videos were created especially for the new third edition: four videos with commentary provide an overview for each of the four sections, while the other six are short animated silent movies that demonstrate a variety of games.

The activities and games provided in this book can be used with individuals, pairs or small groups of pupils. All the printable and photocopiable resources can be easily accessed via the book’s Online Resources (the inside front cover of each copy of the book is stamped with a unique access code), where readers will also be able to view the 10 videos specially created for the later editions of the book.

The Dyscalculia Toolkit is suitable both for teachers and teaching assistants with no specialist background in either maths or special educational needs, as well as the experienced professionals looking for resources to share with colleagues. It is equally useful as a resource to recommend to parents who want to support their children’s learning.

Overcoming Dyscalculia & Difficulties with Number   2nd edition

This practical book draws on Ronit Bird’s teaching experience to create detailed strategies and teaching plans for students aged 9-16 who have difficulties with number. Activities and games are used to teach numeracy skills in these key areas:

• Number components
• Bridging through 10 and through multiples of 10 for addition and subtraction
• Multiplication and division
• Reasoning strategies

New to the 2nd edition (now entitled ‘Overcoming Dyscalculia & Difficulties with Number’, whereas the previous edition was simply called ‘Overcoming Difficulties with Number’) are updated sections for the games, including a table mapping the games against specific teaching points, more activities and guidance for multiplication and division, and 4 new videos added to the accompanying resources. The videos and teaching resources can be conveniently accessed online (via a unique access code stamped on the inside front cover of each copy of the book).

This is an ideal resource for any class teacher, SENCO (Special Educational Need Co-ordinator) and maths subject teachers, and is equally useful for teaching assistants and learning support assistants.

The Dyscalculia Resource Book Games and Puzzles for ages 7 to 14 2nd edition

Ronit Bird is an experienced teacher with an excellent reputation for helping children to understand maths. This book offers 120 photocopiable games and puzzles to help teach key aspects of numeracy. Carefully designed so that no equipment is needed beyond that found in the average home, these games and puzzles actively encourage practice in using reasoning methods.

Part 1 focuses on addition and subtraction, Part 2 targets multiplication and division, Part 3 provides puzzles that feature all four operations. Grids link each game to a specific numeracy topic, as well as listing the number of players required and equipment needed.

Games and puzzles include:

• Triad Families
• 3-in-a-Line Dominoes
• Times Tables Bingo games
• Component Su Doku Puzzles
• The 6x Table Coin Solitaire
• MAD (Multiplication and Division) Puzzles

This Resource Book is perfect for teachers, teaching assistants and parents aiming to improve children’s basic numeracy. All 120 games and puzzles are photocopiable directly from the print book and are also available to download from the accompanying Companion Website, where readers will also be able to access 10 videos specially created for the new edition of the book.

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FAQ – Which book?

‘The Dyscalculia Toolkit’ is the best place to start with a learner who relies on counting for most calculations and who needs to develop a stronger feel for numbers and quantities. The book is highly practical, with a broad range. It starts with concrete and visual patterns for single-digit numbers and ends with teaching ideas designed to help children acquire a good conceptual understanding of times tables and place value. The ‘Toolkit’ includes ideas for games and activities at the concrete, diagrammatic and abstract levels and shows how teachers or parents can manage a careful transition between each stage.

Some of the basic topics covered in ‘The Dyscalculia Toolkit’ are explored in more depth in three of the ebooks within a series called ‘Help your child master numeracy’, the main difference being that the ebooks include demonstration videos of every idea and game presented in the ebook’s text. The result is a set of stand-alone teaching resources that focus in very great detail on very narrow topics. For example, an important basic topic is to investigate the relationships between the numbers up to 10 by giving children hands-on experience of how each quantity can be built out of, or split into, smaller numbers in many different ways. This topic, and suggestions about how to develop children’s understanding of the topic through hands-on activities that make use of dice and domino patterns, is examined in some detail across a dozen pages in the first section of ‘The Dyscalculia Toolkit’, as compared to the much greater variety and level of detail afforded by more than 100 illustrated pages and more than 100 minutes of embedded video contained in the ebook ‘Exploring Numbers Through Dot Patterns’, the whole of which is devoted to the same topic. 

The book ‘Overcoming Dyscalculia & Difficulties with Number’ follows on from ‘The Dyscalculia Toolkit’ and is aimed at more advanced learners who have already worked through the ‘Toolkit’ and/or older students. ‘Overcoming Dyscalculia & Difficulties with Number’ begins with a section on numeracy games to encourage students to stop counting in ones, followed by separate sections that take a step-by-step approach to some key numeracy strategies, including bridging for addition and subtraction, the area model for multiplication and division, and calculation methods based on reasoning. Each section includes a careful analysis of all the pre-skills needed for the topic under discussion. Rather than repeat material that has already been published, the pre-skills segments of ‘Overcoming Dyscalculia & Difficulties with Number’ refer the reader back to the ‘Toolkit’ wherever relevant. Like the ‘Toolkit’, ‘Overcoming Dyscalculia & Difficulties with Number’ is highly practical and includes activities at the concrete and diagrammatic levels designed to establish a secure foundation for purely abstract work.

‘The Dyscalculia Resource Book’ is not a book about teaching. Instead, it is designed for teachers of dyscalculic learners to use as differentiation activities or to send home as homework instead of worksheets. The book is full of paper & pencil games and puzzles designed to rehearse and reinforce efficient calculation strategies that have already been taught at the concrete and the pictorial levels – for example, by using the practical teaching ideas in the previous books – that still need practice.

Please note that the three print books published by Sage (‘The Dyscalculia Toolkit’, ‘Overcoming Dyscalculia & Difficulties with Number’ and ‘The Dyscalculia Resource Book’) are available both as physical books and as electronic versions, but the paper copies of these books are recommended because the clear layout of the pages is not always replicated on the screen. By contrast, the ebooks in the series ‘Help your child master numeracy’ (‘Exploring Numbers Through Dot Patterns’, ‘Exploring Numbers Through Cuisenaire Rods’, ‘Understanding Times Tables’, ‘Understanding Fractions’) and the two ‘Maths Games’ collections exist only as ebooks. They are specifically designed for the screen and for the ability to display the many demonstration videos embedded into the text.

For even more information to help you decide which book best suits your current needs, you can use the ‘Look inside’ facility, below, to read extracts from the print books published by Sage. You can also download a free sample from each of the ebooks in the series ‘Help your child master numeracy’, either from the ebooks page of this website (for EPUB format, i.e. designed for any ebook reader that can support video content) or from the Apple Books store (for Apple Books format, i.e. designed for iPads or other Apple Mac devices).

 

Click on the front cover images to read the Introductions, contents lists and some sample pages from each of these books.  (For samples from the ebooks, see the ebooks page of this website.)

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