Trouble in History Class
I’ve been sharing the past few weeks about aspects of school – outside of math class – that are difficult for dyscalculic learners. The next one I want to discuss is History. Surprised? Let me explain.
It can be extremely complicated for dyscalculics to mentally locate when a date in the past occurred.
A dyscalculic student may ask a question about a date which seems silly, such as “Were my grandparents alive then - in 1720?” The teacher may think the student is trying to be funny, when the student actually lacks a numerical sense for 1720 as a year, and lacks the ability to mentally calculate (or even estimate) how long ago that date occurred. This is further complicated because of how we vocalize years, instead of “The year one-thousand-seven-hundred-twenty,” the dyscalculic learner often hears two numbers, “seven-teen” and “twenty.”
Mads Johan Ogaard, a dyscalculic artist and neurodiversity consultant shared about his confusion with dates as a student on his Instagram post (@madsjohanogaard). He said he’d be confused when his teachers talked about the 70’s or 80’s. He assumed the teacher was talking about someone’s ages, having no idea it was a period of years.
This date difficulty became apparent in a season when our family was watching a History Channel show together. The treasure hunters would reference specific dates in history when an artifact was made. As viewers the date provided information about what else was taking place in history, and how long ago the item was in use. But not for my dyscalculic daughter. One night, I jotted down a timeline for her showing the main dates in the story. As we watched and a year was mentioned, I showed her on the timeline where the date being referenced would be. She examined the timeline with interest and suddenly, for the first time, she could understand and see why certain dates were more exciting than others. (We also now understood why she didn’t seem to enjoy the show as much as the rest of us!)
Another difficulty is the memorization of facts involving numbers. This is difficult enough for the average student, but almost impossible when you have low memory for numbers. To make it more complicated, dyscalculics lack an ability to estimate, so giving an approximate answer or guessing the correct multiple choice, is not feasible for them.
Questions like these on any history exam will be difficult for the dyscalculic child to recall and answer: What is the population of the United States? What year was our country founded? How long did World War II last? How long is the Mississippi river?
Here are some tips to help dyscalculic learners in the classroom:
Try to view the content from the point of view of someone whose primary way to learn and engage with material does not center around numbers.
Provide timelines to give dates a visual location in time.
Be aware of possibly confusing language, instead of “In the 70’s…” be more specific, “In the period of time between the years 1970 to 1979…” (referencing the visual timeline).
Modify exam questions for dyscalculics, and do not require date or number memorization.
For any required number memorization, try a jingle or song to help your dyscalculic learners recall dates or numbers that way.
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