Dyscalculia is a disorder that makes it difficult for people to learn math skills. Children who struggle with basic arithmetic and counting should be investigated for dyscalculia. People with dyscalculia struggle with understanding numbers and concepts, making multiplication and measurements challenging. Early identification can lead to learning strategies and accommodations to make math less challenging.
Many people have heard of dyslexia, which affects the way people see letters and causes great difficulty in learning to read fluently. Another term that is gaining attention is dyscalculia, a series of disorders that make it very difficult for people to learn math skills, including basic arithmetic and counting. Children who still fail to understand those arithmetic facts after a few years of trying should be investigated for dyscalculia. By identifying the disorder early, children can gain learning strategies, support, and accommodations that will make math less challenging, even though it may remain a challenge to stay grade-level with peers.
The first indicators of dyscalculia can be seen as soon as the subject of numbers is introduced in schools, often already in kindergarten. Children may be able to learn to count forward, but will be challenged to count backwards or skipping numbers. Counting to two, for example, may be very challenging for the child with this disorder, and counting backwards from ten may also be difficult to accomplish.
People with dyscalculia usually don’t have strong ideas about what numbers actually represent. They don’t feel that 20 is greater than 10, for example. When they’re guessing on math problems, their guesses may be a long way off. A child asked what 4 + 4 is might answer with a number less than four, expressing that they don’t understand that the number must be much greater than four.
Understanding concepts such as fact families can also challenge children with dyscalculia. They could memorize that 2 + 3 = 5, but they wouldn’t understand that reversing the order to 3 + 2 gives the same answer. Logically building on number sense does not usually occur for these children, even though they can read and write numbers normally.
Because basic arithmetic remains incomprehensible to many of these children, basic multiplication is nearly impossible. Relying on arithmetic facts won’t work, and memorization can be extremely challenging. Again the child with this condition will not understand that reversing the order of numbers does not affect the product. They may be able to memorize their multiplications, but then they may be stumped when something is expressed backwards: 9 X 1 instead of 1 X 9.
The ability to take measurements or understand mathematical concepts such as time, money, speed, temperature, and formulas for determining perimeters or area can be extremely challenging. Commonly, these children tend to avoid homework, get upset when they have to solve a large amount of math problems on a single page, and can’t take timed tests. They will be embarrassed and ashamed if called upon to provide answers that everyone else in the class easily gets, and unfortunately some teachers and parents may misunderstand the problem, teaching these students how they should have memorized their math facts and how I’m not trying . Indeed, children with dyscalculia often try very hard, but may not be successful when they try.
This disorder was identified relatively recently and has yet to receive the attention that disorders such as dyslexia have received. Children who persist in problems with math should be considered potentially dyscalculia and should be tested on the above problems to see if they meet the criteria. Assistance is usually in the form of one-on-one support in class or on retreat time with special education staff or teachers, employing many different strategies to help the child make the connection between numbers and value, such as the use of manipulatives and teaching children in later stages how to use a calculator, as some things like multiplication tables may never be fully understood.
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