As frustrated as you might feel while helping your child with homework, educator Pia Hansen attempts to explain how this “new math” may actually be helpful, even invaluable, to your child.
“It’s not rote memorization,” Hansen says. “It’s all about thinking strategies.”
The point is, “different” isn't necessarily bad. For all the Americans terrified of mathematics, because it never came to make sense to them, this “new math” offers hope to their kids—particularly if there's a learning disability involved.
Let's take a step back. What is missing in children with dyscalculia generally?
Many of the core skills lacking are linked to a solid number sense. Thankfully that's precisely what these new standards are tackling, by teaching children to play with numbers in multiple ways. It also teaches the children that when one way of solving a problem feels particularly difficult to them (perhaps due to a weakness from a disability), they can still solve the problem using another strategy with which they feel more confident.