Linux Format forums

heiowge · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 4:52 pm Post subject: Education software needed

My daughter has an autistic spectrum disorder. One of her problems relates to her recall of facts out of sequence.

She is struggling to learn her times tables. She is 9 and is falling behind her 5 year old brother with her 2x tables.

I've looked on ebay for decent flash cards for tables, but they're not cheap and printing my own doesn't work too well. I could make some, but it'd be better if there was a decent program to do the job.

Can anyone recommend a program or educational suite with that sort of thing?

Cheers.
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eeepc 1015PX, 1.66 Ghz Intel atom processor, 2 GB DDR3, 320 GB hd running Mint 14 MATE. Running great.

ajgreeny · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 9:36 pm Post subject:

I'm not sure if gcompris has exactly what you want, but if not it may still be worth a look-see for other attractive maths and reasoning "games" for children.
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Oh well! · Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2010 11:02 pm Posts: 35

There are many options to choose from:

My daughter also has SEN and she has found a lot to enjoy and learn from in GCompris and TuxMaths. I cannot remember if flash cards, specifically, are part of the packages, but there are plenty of good activities.

For printable flash cards, you could try this: http://www.kitzkikz.com/flashcards/index.php. It seems to work pretty well: you just need to do the printing and scissor work.

This is an online flash card site/app/thingummy: http://www.multiplication.com/games/play/quick-flash-ii

And a web search for 'times tables games' yields many, many good resources.

johnhudson · LXF regular Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2005 2:37 pm Posts: 767

A couple of alternatives: you could help her to develop the skills she has; it is not uncommon for people to have a difficulty in one area but proficiency in another.

I well remember a girl of 16 who could read the Times but had difficulty counting up to 10; she simply learned to work round the areas with which she had difficulty.

Alternatively, you could ask for a neurological assessment; the area of the brain which humans use for numbers over three was never intended for mathematics and there are some well-known conditions arising from damage to this area which create difficulties developing a 'number sense.'

pastychomper · Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2010 11:54 am Posts: 36

There's a flashcard program for KDE, kwordquiz. I can't see any times-table flashcard files on the site (didn't look very hard) but you can make your own, and it might be easier than making a printed set.

heiowge · Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 11:59 am Post subject:

I made my own 2x and 3x table flash cards old school in the end. They work great but took a while to do.

I'll have a play with all that suggested software when I get my main desktop fixed. Hopefully there's something in there that'll do the job.

Cheers.
_________________
AMD PHENOM II X6, 14 GB DDR3, 500 GB hd, 1GB nVidia card, running Linux Mint 14 KDE / Win 7. Damn thing keeps breaking.

eeepc 1015PX, 1.66 Ghz Intel atom processor, 2 GB DDR3, 320 GB hd running Mint 14 MATE. Running great.