Did you know? Problem solving and students with disabilities

Word problems! AHH, how many students feel when you put these in front of them. Honestly as a teacher I can feel the same way. Students with disabilities especially have a difficult time determining where to even start when it comes to solving math word problems. Students with disabilities many times have difficulty with their executive functioning (organizing the steps) and working memory (being able to hold information in short term memory in order to use it to solve problems). Both of these deficits pose problems when solving word problems. This strategy has helped my students drastically. It gives them the steps with a checklist and visual models in order to visualize what is happening in the problem. These steps can be used with all math word problems and multiply steps.