Current Events > Trying to teach my little brother (on the spectrum) the concept of rounding

(+) Yeah! (+)

So my little brother is in quarantine since someone in his class came down with CoVID. He's been given work to do at home from his teacher and me and my mum have been helping him to it. He's in Year 3 btw

Anyway, last night it was my turn to do some maths with him and learn about rounding. The context was prices: if I want to calculate how much 7.88 + 6.92 is I can calculate 8 + 7 first and then work out the difference.

And he just didn't get it. Normally he's a whiz at maths, regularly gets 100% in his tests. But he just could grasp the concept of having to calculate a rough answer before the actual answer

/blogFAQs, I guess
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Just tell him 0-4 round down. 5-9 round up

Year 3 might be a bit early for parentheses but if it's rounding specifically that trips him up you could try to rephrase it as (8 - 0.12) + (7 - 0.08). Or maybe that's what you did. Not really used to working with people on the spectrum but generally speaking, when someone doesn't understand something like this, the culprit is almost always that they're missing a prerequisite piece of knowledge.

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teep_ posted...

So my little brother is in quarantine since someone in his class came down with CoVID. He's been given work to do at home from his teacher and me and my mum have been helping him to it. He's in Year 3 btw

Anyway, last night it was my turn to do some maths with him and learn about rounding. The context was prices: if I want to calculate how much 7.88 + 6.92 is I can calculate 8 + 7 first and then work out the difference.

And he just didn't get it. Normally he's a whiz at maths, regularly gets 100% in his tests. But he just could grasp the concept of having to calculate a rough answer before the actual answer

/blogFAQs, I guess

I think it would help if you explain the rough answer obviously isn't the "answer" but is a closer estimate than a random guess.

I haven't heard back on my spectrum tests it's hard to get diagnosed as an adult, but online tests suggest I'm on the spectrum, and his kind of thinking definitely makes sense to me.

The confusing thing isn't that rounding is hard, the confusing thing is calling it "right". People who like precision and math don't like calling the wrong thing "right". So maybe reframe rounding as approximation.

I hope they aren't saying he has to solve 7.88+6.92 as 8+7-0.12-0.08, because that certainly isn't any more "right" than just doing 7.88 + 6.92 directly, it just helps some people who aren't as precision minded think about it.

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joe40001 posted...

I haven't heard back on my spectrum tests it's hard to get diagnosed as an adult

What kind of tests did you get done and/or how would I go about getting the same ones done? I resemble my little brother in more ways than I'd like to admit <_<
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teep_ posted...

What kind of tests did you get done and/or how would I go about getting the same ones done? I resemble my little brother in more ways than I'd like to admit <_<

Oh it's an ordeal.

And honestly I don't understand the stigma around the spectrum. Like who doesn't like precision, and making sense, and clear rules, and quiet, and drowning all noises out by listening to static on your ear buds so you can think more clearly? (That last one might just be me)

As a potential outsider, Neurotypicalness is really overrated IMO.

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I read that as

concept of sounding

and I was very, very confused.

Also, don't respond to Joenumbers. Just don't do it.


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Rounding messed me up a lot in 3rd grade even tho I felt pretty good about math. With the problem you listed I feel like it would be better to work out the entire thing then round the decimals at the end. The whole concept is really dumb though.

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