Dyscalculia - Davis Maths Mastery

I work as a Davis Dyslexia Facilitator. I often come across people that hate maths. I on the other hand have always loved maths. It kept my focus, it made sense and it had a right or wrong answer. Many people unfortunately, find that maths is like a foreign language. No matter how easy people tell them it is, it just seems hard.

I remember the first time I came across the Davis Maths Mastery program during my training in New Zealand. I was so excited. I was buzzing! The program seemed ingenious.  Every aspect of maths was covered simply and logically. Each step built on the previous and it made a lot of sense. I knew I could use it to help people that struggle with Maths.
 
Since then I have worked with many people doing the Davis Maths program. Most have had some level of dyscalculia. The funny thing is quite a few have been quite brilliant! But just struggled a bit with certain aspects of doing maths.
 
Most clients that have dyscalculia have missing concepts - they are not good with sequences, time, maybe they are disorganised. The Davis Maths Mastery Program always starts with the foundation concepts of Change, Consequence, cause/effect, before/after, time, sequence and order/disorder. These concepts are the basic concepts for Maths and funnily enough for life. Ron Davis, who researched and developed these concepts over many years – is such a genius for having discovered these concepts and presenting them in their simplest forms. Everyone who does the Davis Maths Mastery program benefits from doing these Basic Concepts. We investigate each concept in real-life scenarios. Then we create an example from Clay, then the person teaches it to themselves.
 
The example below is showing ice turning to water as result of applying heat to it. This was an experiment that we created, observed, timed and photographed in its various stages of change. 
 
My young client is showing how the cause of the ice melting, is similar to the cause of the maths equation of 2 becoming 1, by taking 1 away from it. My clients is pointing with the arrow to the cause of the ice melting and has circled the cause of the maths change.

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​Following the Basic concepts, we address the language of Maths. Some people are confused by the language of maths – this is similar to dyslexia where certain ‘terminology’ is difficult to fully comprehend. When a person creates a definition from clay for the maths-term, it seems to make sense. Maths terms could be - add, subtract, multiply, equals, perimeter, circumference, radius etc. Below is an example of my young client's representation of the term ‘add’. She is showing how adding an ingredient to a cake mix, is similar to maths addition. 

The Maths program progresses by looking at various aspects of maths in a logical fashion, introducing each topic one step at a time. We are always looking for true understanding, not memory; so that the person is empowered and can figure out maths rather than simply memorise it. Things such as place value, fractions, decimals, multiplication are addressed so the person can gain confidence.

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The young girl whose photographs are being used was amazingly bright. Despite this, she was struggling at school and did not like maths. After a fun, intensive program spent together – where I could barely keep up with this brilliant girl – I received the following feedback from her mother.
 
She reported that the Davis Maths Mastery Workshop had been awesome for her daughter. She had become confident and was hoping to be in the top maths group soon! This was such a turn-around from the previous term, when she was lacking confidence and feeling stupid.
 
The Davis Maths Mastery program is not tutoring. It addresses the foundation concepts for maths and results in the client being ready to catch-up on the maths they have missed during their years of confusion. Dependent on the age of the client and the level of dyscalculia, it may take some time for them to catch up to grade level. However, in my experience, all people that undertake the Davis Maths Mastery Program, experience an immediate improvement in their ability to understand maths and their confidence around maths.