Math Word Problems, Key Words and My Daughter

Math word problems, my daughter, autism and confusion were the ingredients for a disastrous situation. Like most parents in my situation, I knew that with some creativity, a lot of work on my daughter's part and a lot of work on our part, she was going to learn how to solve these problems. It would take time, but that we had. Hard work was part and parcel of my daughter's life. She loved being in inclusion in elementary school but she also had to put in an admirable amount of effort into learning the lessons. She was and still is willing to do that. It was necessary to give her some "tools" that would make her life easier. One very important one was the need to memorize the multiplication table. This is no longer emphasized in school but, for her, this was a necessity. To make it fun, we made this into a "contest". We would work on the table and then make a list of multiplication problems to solve. She and someone else (her dad, myself, her tutor, whoever was available) would be given the list and we would see who could finish it first. Before long that table was memorized and a lot of fun was had by all. With that accomplished, we set out to putting together a list of key words used in most of these word problems. These key words would give her the clues she needed to determine what mathematical operation to use. My daughter had to memorize these key words and since most children with autism have fantastic memories, this was not a difficult task. Here are some of the key words we came up with:
ADDITION:
total number of
how many altogether
how many all in all
how much altogether

SUBTRACTION:
how many are left
how much less
how much is left
how much change (money)

MULTIPLICATION:
if there are 5 in each bag and there are 5 bags, how many altogether
if there are 5 in each bag and there are 5 bags, how many all in all
if there are 5 in each bag and there are 5 bags, how many total

DIVISION:
how many in each
how much in each

Color coding is big in our house. We did spend time (a lot of time) teaching her what these concepts meant, but memorizing these key words allowed her to solve problems more efficiently and with less frustration. It also bought us more time to explain what they meant. I hope this helps others the way it helped my daughter. My daughter's math teachers and tutors have had incredible patience and to them we will always be grateful.