Elementary Mathematics and Language Difficulties

Three questions provide the structure of this work: what are the specific learning characteristics of children with language difficulties?; what are the critical points where such characteristics lead to difficulties in the mathematical syllabus?; and what can be done about them? Three of the features that frequently accompany children's language difficulties are discussed: a weakness in symbolic understanding; a weakness in organizational skills; and memory weakness. A number of practical suggestions are made, such as: the diverse use of number words in the child's pre-school experience; organizing mathematical word problems; and learning to count. The book is in two parts: Part One raised the problems, looks at research and suggests methods; Part Two picks up some of the methods and describes them in detail for the practitioner wanting to try them.