According to the director of the New England Center for Children (NECC, see autism) this is the WORST curriculum for autists as are all "spiral" curricula. In addition to this, I am a teacher in a school district where Everyday Math is the mandate and I teach in a self-contained ASD program. I HATE everyday math. How helpful is it to introduce a concept and then move on to the next one, knowing you will return to the new one later? Add to this that you will teach 2-3 different methods (algorithms) per concept.
YUCK
Our experience w/EM for my ASD dd was terrible. We had to get her in self-contained instructional math to get away from it. We do Saxon Math Homeschool at home and her class uses SRA. She thrives on the repetition of Saxon. I think in middle school next year they also use SRA "Connecting Math Concepts". DD can calculate fine, but word problems are a continuing struggle given comprehension delays.
EM is language-based and that causes a lot of the problem, along with all the jumping around. DD has never really recovered from EM. She still has a terrible time counting money in 5th grade. She's probably more than 2 years behind in Math. In fact, my NT 1st grader (also using EM) can count money with no problem. She has no difficulty w/EM but I personally do not like the curriculum at all. I supplement a lot at home with Saxon and also Singapore Math. I think a lot of the mainstream classroom teachers don't like it either; many teachers at our school supplement heavily with more traditional materials. And plenty of people send their kids to KUMON or Sylvan.
RUN, KICK and SCREAM...
tell the school it isn't the most appropriate Math program....its wordy, jumps around, requires higher level skills that our kiddos MAY not have right now..i could go on and on...its designer math...that is what it is....
and- tell them you could get lots of professionals to put that on paper...
and then...they will slowly turn around, and give you more appropriate work...
i have a 4th grader- and he is now doing SAXON Math...good math- functional math...
our school uses EVERYDAY Math- and the typical kids are having a tough time with it.
take that EVERYDAY math and they KNOW what I want them to do with it.
i will add- my 2nd grader does fine with it- but he isn't my Autistic one...I echo stay away from Everyday Math.
YUCK!
Here is a website where you can find out all about the "new new math" or "fuzzy math"--these people are math specialists (PHD's in Math) and the website is great.
http://www.mathematicallycorrect.com/
I used to homeschool and found them through homeschool boards.
Everyday Math is awful. We just took it out of Jeremy's life completely. He is done. I am done with it. I think the Sped teacher is done with it....It is a waste. Schools that force it on EVERYONE should be ashamed of themselves.
I won't miss it.
....awful AWFUL AWFUL program.
It's been tormenting my son for two years now, and I absolutely refuse to put him through it ever, ever again.
No mastery of skills...and no mastery of basic facts before they start moving onto more complex concepts. Most concepts are reviewed for a day or two, and then you move on...the spiraling programs makes it difficult for any kid who will miss school at all (as mine does for a chronic illness)...miss a day and you're screwed. And like Karolysgirl said, very, very language based.
Ask about alternatives - because I certainly would never ever recommend this for a kid. (How they managed to screw up math is beyond me...it's logic, why would they mess with that?)
BTW - thanks for the Saxon tips, I was just reviewing curriculums
ETA: Also, I have heard good things about "Math U See" too...but haven't looked into it completely yet.
Well, it was bound to happen. My SD is looking at adopting this math curriculum. They are holding an open house next week in order for parents to preview it and have a "hands on" experience. There have been some previous posts that suggest to me this might not be the best math curriculm for kiddos on the spectrum.
I would appreciate any thoughts, comments, or observations (both pro and con) about this math curriculum for both NT and ADS kids. My son will be going into mainstream Kindergarten in the Fall, and this is when they are looking to adopt it.
what is it called? Sorry - I put it in the topic, but should have also included it in the text. It's