What is dyscalculia?

Dyscalculia is a specific and persistent difficulty in understanding numbers which can lead to a diverse range of difficulties with mathematics. It will be unexpected in relation to age, level of education and experience and occurs across all ages and abilities.

Mathematics difficulties are best thought of as a continuum, not a distinct category, and they have many causal factors. Dyscalculia falls at one end of the spectrum and will be distinguishable from other maths issues due to the severity of difficulties with number sense, including subitising, symbolic and non-symbolic magnitude comparison, and ordering. It can occur singly but often co-occurs with other specific learning difficulties, mathematics anxiety and medical conditions.

Dyscalculia assessments are designed to identify any potential learning difficulties with numeracy and mathematics. I use a variety of methods, such as interviews and tests, to assess a person's ability to calculate, understand numerical concepts and perform basic maths operations. An assessment can help provide an accurate diagnosis and suggest interventions to help improve a person's numeracy skills.

Signs of dyscalculia

Maths learning difficulties that can also be found in learners with dyscalculia include:

Difficulties understanding some maths concepts such as fractions and percentages.
Difficulties with sequencing and pattern spotting.
Difficulties with short term, working and long term memory.
Difficulties remembering how to do a calculation or follow a procedure.
Difficulties with mathematical language and word problems.
Difficulties with automatic retrieval of information such as times tables.
Immature strategies such as finger counting.
Slow processing and information retrieval.
Over reliance of rote learning even if they don’t understand what they are doing.
Unable to explain what they are doing.
Maths anxiety.
Learners with dyscalculia can have some or all of the above but also have difficulties with number sense including comparing the values of numbers.
Early identification is vital and the correct intervention at a young age to develop number awareness and flexibility will help build strong foundations for the understanding of the number system.

maths anxiety

Maths anxiety is a very real condition, not dissimilar to PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). It occurs when a person has experienced a traumatic event and the amygdala has stored that memory so that when the learner encounters it again, they instantly go into “fight or flight mode”, the body becomes stimulated with adrenalin and the brain shuts down. In maths, such an event may be being suddenly asked to say a time table fact or doing a test and passing it to another person to mark.

Children as young as six start to suffer from maths anxiety.

This can start the maths anxiety sequence which follows a pattern of:

Afraid to have a go
Not learning new skills
Not having skills to build new learning