Dyscalculia
Dyslexia Teaching Assistant Course
December 2010
Is dyscalculia ‘dyslexia with maths’?
 There are many reasons why a person
may be bad at Maths.
 There will not be an instant or simple
cure because there is no one reason
 Many people fail with Maths and not all
will be dyscalculic
What is Dyscalculia?
 Developmental Dyscalculia was first recognised
by Dept for education and Skills 2001 and
defined as
‘a condition that affects the ability to acquire
arithmetical skills. Dyscalculic learners may
have difficulty understanding simple number
concepts, lack an intuitive grasp of numbers
and have problems learning number facts and
procedures. Even if they produce a correct
answer or use a correct method they may do so
mechanically and without confidence.’
Dyslexia and Dyscalculia
There is a growing acceptance within the
research that there are some pupils who
present:
 Dyslexic characteristics
 Dyscalculic characteristics
 Aspects of both conditions
And there are pupils who
 Appear to have aspects of both but are actually
suffering from the side effects of Dyslexia
rather than ‘pure’ dyscalculia
What distinguishes dyscalculia from
just problems with Maths?
 It all depends on the definition!
 It depends on the perseverance of the
difficulty –like all skills if you stop
practising then you lose skills and how
many of us practice Maths?
 Therefore having a difficulty with maths
should not automatically earn you earn
the label ‘dyscalculic’
How do I recognise a child who has Dyscalculia?
What are the symptoms and how does this differ from
Dyslexia with numbers?
 As a basic indicator, the child will be performing below
teacher’s expectations with no obvious reason such as
illness
 This underachievement may manifest itself in specifics
such as knowing the value of numbers, realising 9 is 1 less
that 10
 They may have no understanding of why or what the result
means in a sum
 Do not be surprised that those who have difficulties in
decoding and understanding written words and learning
patterns involving symbols also experience in learning
facts, symbols which are used in Mathematics
The Language of Maths
 Problems with Maths often show in Year
3 or 4 .One reason for this is that most
of the work done in the early years is
oral and only when they have to write
down their methods that problems
appear.
Dyscalculic pupils may:
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Have sound technical reading skills but fail to understand the
mathematical language
Difficulty linking mathematical words to numerals
Difficulty transferring from the concrete to abstract thinking
Difficulty understanding mathematical concepts
Difficulty choosing the correct strategies to solve word
problems
Fails to remember the sequence of calculations in multi-step
word problem
Difficulty linking the Maths terms to their abbreviations
Forget the formula
Unable to read the time
Have trouble recognising symbols and abbreviations
Difficulty interpreting Data patterns
Difficulty with mathematical language of money
Dyscalculic pupils may:
 Find remembering Maths rules and formulae difficult
 Find sequencing the order and the value of numbers
difficult
 Can have difficulty tracking up and down the number line
 Are inconsistent from day to day in what they know and
can do
 Are confused when to use basic symbols
 Are not confident and avoid estimating and checking their
answers
 Have learning difficulty learning times tables and not able
to achieve automatic recall of table facts
 Forget how to round up and down with regard to place
value
 May forget the properties of shape
Dyscalculic pupils:
 Are worried that they work more slowly
and incorrectly
 Lack confidence – even when they
produce the correct answer
 Will adopt avoidance strategies
 Often develop ’learned helplessness’
strategies
 Dislike whole group interactive sessions
Ok, I’m dyscalculic . So what?
A few golden rules
 Don’t create anxiety
 Experiencing success reduces anxiety
 Experiencing failure increases anxiety
 Understand your pupils as individuals
 ‘Teach more than one way to do things’ rule
 Remember where each topic leads mathematically
 Understanding is a more robust outcome than just recall
 Try to understand errors ….don’t settle for ‘wrong’
 Prevention is better than cure
 all the above rules have exceptions
Mathematics Assessment
Example of pupil questionnaire
Question
Response
Comment/ strategy
 count on in ones from 1
 count back in ones from 20
 count on in ones from 7
 count back in ones from 17
 Count on in tens from 0
 Count back in tens from 100
 Count on in twos from 0
 Count back in twos from 20
 Count the beans (up to at least 20)
Throw 10 beans.
 How many red?How many white?How many altogether?Which
colour has more beans?How do you know?Which colour has fewer
beans?How do you know?
Be cautious in
labelling children as
Dyscalculic!
Pinpoint the difficulty and use
multisensory approaches to teach
and overlearn mathematical
concepts