Page 1 of 1

Techniques for teaching maths to right brain children?

Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 9:42 am
by DiW
I have discovered that my daughter is a right brain child that needs to visualise things in order to understand them. Does anyone have any experience of, or tips for, teaching decimals, percentages and fractions to a child like this? I have found some great stuff on you tube for multiplication which works like a dream but I am struggling to find techniques for the more abstract concepts.

Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 10:40 am
by stevew61
Search for "fraction cubes" and look at equivalence cubes (fractions, decimals, %).

I have sent you a PM with a link.

Most kids need visual help with this, most schools use fraction cubes. :D

Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 10:50 am
by yoyo123
lots of things she can manipulate, cut up cards, string etc into equal pieces, percentages, work from half, quarter, visualise it cut into 100 pieces.

Not sure how old she is and therefore what stage maths, but using counters, pictures, 3D objects. Try Googling Kinaesthetic teaching for some good ideas.
Fro venn diagrams and classifying hoops or string laid out on the floor and objects put intoteh relative section.
Ratio and proportion can be reinforced by adapting recipes, then cooking them to use weights and measures. You can talk about temperature scales too.

Thermometers are a useful introduction to negative numbers

for scale problems,a map or one of those bathroom and kitchen planners you get in the back of Catalogues from DIY places...

cutting out and manipulating nets of shapes.

drawing diagrams for problems always helps me.

hope that helps.I'll dig around and try and find some more

Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 11:31 am
by DiW
Thanks for those ideas - that's great and I'm sure they'll help.
She's Y5 so will be taking the 11+ this November. It's not that she can't do these things at all, she can, but she often seems to forget things that she has learnt previously and I want to try and get them concreted in her mind so that she remembers how to do them at the crucial time!

Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 4:28 pm
by yoyo123
I know how she feels! I am always having to draw diagrams to work out problems. ..

Posted: Sun May 23, 2010 7:56 pm
by DarkEnergy
Great! Your DD is a lucky girl. I am also very strongly visual and automatically convert problems into visualisations, images, films, 2D and 3D objects etc etc. I was never taught and am totally self taught. But it makes solving many problems incredibly easy. It almost becomes intuitive and many problems resolve with little effort.

Have a go at introducing DD to the memory techniques that have been popularised... open a door into a room and the first object you see is ... link to whatever you need etc etc

DD will be a natural, just need to get her started.

Posted: Sun May 23, 2010 8:12 pm
by yoyo123
try googling Mind Mapping , it is a highly visual way of organising your thoughts and information.