Causes

At this time, there is no known cause behind a child having a specific learning difficulty in mathematics. Dyscalculia is a neurological disorder characterised by mathematical difficulties. The disorder causes the person to have difficulty understanding general and specific maths concepts, and difficulty completing maths tasks in a timely manner. The cause in children is unknown but will generally be lifelong, although remediation and academic support can assist in successfully managing this disorder.

What can I do if I think a child in my class has maths difficulties?

• Provide additional small group/ 1:1 (if possible) support for maths skills development.
• You may wish to suggest that they also meet with a paediatrician to get an overview of their child’s general development to consider whether there are any other issues affecting the child’s learning.
• Ask the parent to have their child practise maths skills at home. Purchase a maths skills development book – available online  
  • e.g. Nelson Maths Year 3 Student Book https://www.booktopia.com.au/nelson-maths-year-3-glenda-bradley/book/9780170227681.html 

If, after investigating and supporting as above, with at least 6 months of this intensive intervention, you continue to be concerned about the child’s maths difficulty, then it may prove beneficial to ask the parent to have the child assessed. A comprehensive educational assessment by a psychologist who specialises in this field can provide insight into such difficulties and offer suggestions and recommendations to support the child’s learning difficulty at school. 

Dyscalculia – Maths Difficulties in Summary

Dyscalculia is a neurological disorder that impacts a person’s ability to complete maths tasks at an age expected level. Provide individual assistance to improve the understanding and completion of maths tasks. Check with other professionals such as a paediatrician to check if there are physical reasons behind maths difficulties. Then, seek a psychologist specialising in child cognitive and academic assessments who will investigate whether the child may have a specific learning disorder and provide recommendations to support the child in their learning.

Useful Websites

https://www.additudemag.com/what-is-dyscalculia-overview-and-symptom-breakdown
https://childmind.org/article/how-to-spot-dyscalculia
https://www.dyslexia.uk.net/specific-learning-difficulties/dyscalculia
https://www.understood.org/articles/en/what-is-dyscalculia

Signs of Dyscalculia In the Classroom

The indicators below can provide a helpful first step in identifying if a child may need to be assessed for dyscalculia.

• random number and symbol mixups when reading, thinking, copying, writing, speaking, remembering
• unreliable memory of numbers, math facts, rules, and procedures
• exerts inordinate effort, buts gets disappointing results
• unable to do mental figuring
• uses fingers or marks to calculate
• quickly experiences frustration, tears, mind-freeze, distress, anxiety, panic, trauma, avoidance
• struggles with handling money; cannot make change or figure tax, tips, discounts, conversions; poor $ planning, management; avoids cash
• struggles with telling time, tracking and managing time, and punctuality
• experiences directional confusion during math tasks, when navigating inside buildings and across town, and during physical sequences (dance steps, sports, playing music, playing games, opening a combination lock, following directions
• can follow patterns and complete math work, but quickly forgets
• operates from fleeting memory, but lacks deep understanding
• reasons aloud and talks to themselves to keep ideas in mind
• has difficulty imagining abstractions, quantities, layouts, clocks, faces, numbers , and figures
• had difficulty processing more than 4 visual items
• visual-spatial processing difficulties
• experiences brain static with number lines, equations, large numbers, decimal numbers, graphs and coordinates, clocks, ten frames, abacuses, cuisenaire rods, unifix cubes, manipulatives without small recognizable patterns, keyboarding, learning to play an instrument, sight-reading music, cards and dominos with more than 5 dots or symbols
• impaired feedback from fingers (finger sense) and motor-sequencing
• insufficient working memory (needed for simultaneous processing, compounding task demands, retention of serial information (counting, listening to and following directions), keeping track during math work
• imperfect sequential memory, especially when distracted, and beyond 5 items