Games for Dyscalculic Learners
I am a great believer in using teaching games, not as a bit of fun to look forward to at the end of a lesson, but as an integral part of the teaching and learning experience. Games that are carefully devised can target particular areas of maths difficulties, or misconceptions, and motivate pupils to give themselves plenty of practice in whatever mathematical techniques that they need to understand but have not yet fully mastered.
All three of my print books, The Dyscalculia Toolkit, Overcoming Dyscalculia & Difficulties with Number and The Dyscalculia Resource Book, are full of teaching games that are suitable for pupils at many different levels and across many different numeracy topics. The game boards, together with full instructions of how to play, can be printed off from the CDs attached to the inside of the back cover of the earlier editions of the books, or accessed online for newer editions of the books.
My ebooks, Exploring Numbers Through Dot Patterns, Exploring Numbers Through Cuisenaire Rods, Understanding Times Tables and Understanding Fractions also contain a variety of games and activities together with demonstration videos showing exactly how to play the games. Game boards from all the ebooks in the series ‘Help your child master numeracy’ can be found on the Ebook game boards page of this website.
Below, I offer more than 60 extra games (excluding the many possible variations). These games are free for anyone to use, but not to publish or otherwise disseminate.
A Dozen Domino Games to promote numeracy
Find Smaller Numbers in Larger Numbers
Key Components Dice / Domino Games
Key Components Domino Cards Solitaire
Key Components Triads Board Game
Plus 1 or 2 Component Facts Game
Two Odds Make an Even – and So Do Two Evens!
Various Card Games to practise addition and subtraction
Various Games for fractions practice
Maths Games with demonstration videos
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Card Games
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Dice & Domino Games
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These free ebooks are not books in the conventional sense, but rather collections of teaching games carefully chosen to provide children of all ages with enjoyable ways of improving numeracy skills. Although the games are not specifically targeted at learners with dyscalculia, they provide the kind of extra practice in basic arithmetic that most dyscalculic children need. The ebook of card games includes 5 of the games from the collection listed above under the heading ‘Various Card Games to practise addition and subtraction’, together with 5 other great card games, each game being the subject of one of the 10 short demonstration videos that accompany the rules of play. The Dice & Domino ebook contains rules and instructions for playing 5 dice games and 5 domino games together with 10 short demonstration videos.