What is Dyscalculia?

Top tips for supporting children with dyscalculia

The current definition of dyscalculia refers to a specific and persistent difficulty in understanding numbers, which can lead to a diverse range of difficulties with maths. It affects individuals of all age groups, socio-economic groups, levels of education, abilities and experience. We say that dyscalculia often comes with a ‘friend’, as often there is significant co-occurrence of different neurodiverse conditions.

Maths difficulties are best thought of as a continuum, of which dyscalculia sits at the end. The condition is thought to occur in 6% of the UK population, equivalent to 1.5 children per a typical class size of 30 pupils. Therefore, it is almost inevitable that, over time, educators will have to teach many young people with dyscalculia.

However, unlike with other learning difficulties, such as ADHD or dyslexia, research into dyscalculia is still relatively embryonic. In a recent piece of research by Loughborough’s Mathematics Learning Support Centre (MLSC), it found that those with dyscalculia were 100x less likely to be diagnosed and given appropriate teaching support than those with dyslexia.

Indicators of dyscalculia

There is a long list of indicators for maths difficulties and specifically dyscalculia, however a few common behaviours are:

Inability to subitise:

This is the innate ability to recognise a group of 4 or 5 counters without counting them. Often, a dyscalculic child will need to touch each counter as they count.

Lack of understanding of relative number value: Determining which number is larger or smaller.

For some dyscalculic pupils, the digits have little or no meaning. This also makes estimating very difficult and often leads to wildly inaccurate answers to calculations, because the dyscalculic person cannot spot the errors.

Weak at making connections:

For example, a dyscalculic learner may not recognise patterns, such as, 4+4=8 therefore 14+4=18

Persistent counting in 1s/a lack of calculation strategies:

When tackling a calculation question, such as 5+2, a dyscalculic individual would often count up to 5 before adding 2 more to obtain an answer of 7. Counting backwards in 1s is much harder for these people, as it places demands upon their working memory and often leads to inaccuracy.

Poor memory for facts and procedures:

Dyscalculic learners find it difficult to retain information and steps in maths. This makes learning times tables by rote, for example, very challenging.

Weakness in visual and spatial orientation:

Dyscalculic learners may struggle in understanding and analysing graphical data, as well as working with shapes to determine area and volume.

Directional confusion:

This could lead to ‘reversing digits’ - 2 is written as a 5 and vice versa - or could lead to errors writing numbers, for example, 18 is written as 80 or 23 is written as 32.

Difficulty understanding language: There are lots of terms which are only used in maths and often there are many words with the same meaning: subtract, minus, takeaway, less than and the difference between.

Counting errors:

For example, counting up in 10s… 70, 80, 90, 20 is often heard by dyscalculic children as they may fail to discriminate between ‘-teen’ and ‘-ty’ number families.

How can we support pupils with dyscalculia?

Once the indicators are identified, the next stage will be to complete a full assessment which provides a diagnostic overview of the pupil’s strengths and weaknesses, so a really focused intervention plan can be implemented. It really needs to be targeted intervention, aimed at where things started to go wrong.

I like to compare the profile of a dyscalculic pupil as similar to a Jenga tower, where advanced levels of maths require firm foundations. Where bricks are missing in the key foundation areas of maths, it’s going to be wobbly and ultimately fall over. Any intervention needs to be pulled right back to where the problems started to occur. Teachers need to be on the lookout for these maths difficulties. Identifying these things at an early age means there is the best chance to put a plan into place to help a pupil.

ROB JENNINGS Co-Founder of The Dyscalculia Network www.dyscalculianetwork.com