Last Updated on July 18, 2022 by Editorial Team
A Teacher is also called the ‘second parent’ for playing important role in shaping the future interests of a child. After parents, Teacher is most sought out person with whom a student tries to find solace with. And that’s the reason we have student counselors in schools. A Teacher’s job is not just confined to completing the syllabus and imbibing the subject knowledge but also to patrol over the behavioral aspects, learning, psychological and etc. patterns exerted by the student.
We already talked about why early adaption of a new learning process is important for students with dyscalculia. But to achieve that the disorder has to be diagnosed first. The stats on this are worrisome. However, a vigilant teacher could play a crucial role in catching the culprit behind such learning issues at the right time.
First things first, Educators need to understand the mindset of a child suffering from dyscalculia. There are ample resources available online/offline for teachers to learn more about the elements of this under-studied and under-researched learning disorder. We curated some of them in this post.
Websites
- Numberdyslexia.com : Numberdyslexia is the website made specifically to educate people about the learning disorders revolving around math. It keeps you updated on recent research and developments on dyscalculia and dyslexia. Learn more about the topic and learn about the issues that a kid with dyscalculia and dyslexia face on daily basis. You can also use the discussion forum to put forward your queries.
- Mathisfun.com : Practice is the key for building math skills. Indulge kids in practicing math with Mathisfun. The site really took it to another level in terms of making math interactive. There are a lot of exercises and games to play and improve math skills.
- Teacherspayteachers : is an online marketplace where teachers buy and sell original educational materials including worksheets, print-tables and charts. You can find a lot of good resources on maths topic for teachers to use it in class. TeacherspayTeachers gives you access to over 3 million resources. Just search ‘Dyscalculia’ to get over thousands of digital and resources created by other professionals.
- Helpingwithmath.com : is another website for teachers to find resources specifically for Maths. The resources are free to use which gives it an edge over TeacherspayTeachers.
Apps
1. Smartynote
Smartynote is a notepad app with powerful features like OCR, Voice recognition and Text to speech. Although the app is made specifically for dyslexics, people with dyscalculia can also take the benefit as it can read numbers as well.
It really makes note taking so much easier. All you have to do is click a photo of a page or some text, it will extract the text and save it to your note. You an use voice recognition if you want the app to write note while you speak. You can also let the app dictates the saved note to you. Different color combinations and fonts are available to suit your needs. Around 20k people use this app worldwide. Teachers may encourage the use of this app to get the students to feel comfortable while writing notes etc.
2. BYJUS and similar tutoring apps
Online coaching is in trend. Students turn to tabs for learning topics they are weak at. There are several at par online services to tutor kids. For Kids in grade 1-5 , apps like BYJUS offers best services in the industry. Its easy to use, simple UI, interactive classes and provision of progress report makes it leading over its competitors. There are several apps in market as well that provide specific tutoring services for individuals with learning disorders. For teachers, this could be a great step if they want to put forward effort on a digital platform so that maximum students could get benefit from.
3. NeuroNation
NeuroNation is another brain training app with tasks and exercises similar to Lumosity. However, it majorly targets people with weak memory and concentration power (as in the case of dyscalculia).
At the moment, the program consists of 27 exercises. More than 15 million people use this app worldwide.
UI is pretty simple and easy to understand. Users can personalize activities according to their potentials. Just like Lumosity, Neuro nation also provides detailed insights of training progress. A daily 15 minutes exercise with the app is recommended. Teachers may let the students play with NeuroNation as the relaxation period or as reward.
Books
1. The Dyscalculia Assessment
The Dyscalculia Assessment is a tool for investigating pupils’ numeracy abilities. It is designed to inform a personalised teaching programme for individuals or small groups of pupils who have difficulties with numbers. The assessment was devised at Emerson House, a specialist centre in London supporting pupils with difficulties in numeracy and literacy.
2. Dyscalculia: from Science to Education
Written by Brian Butterworth, Dyscalculia: from Science to Education explains the latest research in the science of dyscalculia in a clear, non-technical way. He uniquely links research to pedagogical practice, to explain how science can be used for the identification of dyscalculia, and for the development of strategies to best help affected learners acquire arithmetical competence. The text provides robust interventions that focus on helping pupils to strengthen their ability to process numerosities and link them to the familiar number symbols, counting words and digits.
3. The Dyscalculia Toolkit: Supporting Learning Difficulties in Maths
With over 200 activities and 40 games this book is designed to support learners aged 6 to 14 years, who have difficulty with maths and numbers. Ronit Bird provides a clear explanation of dyscalculia, and presents the resources in a straightforward fashion. Schedule some classes for practicing exercises from the book. Kids will love it!
4. The Dyscalculia Resource Book: Games and Puzzles for ages 7 to 14
Ronit Bird is an experienced teacher with an excellent reputation for helping children to understand math. This book offers 100 reproducible games to help teach key aspects of numeracy. Carefully designed so that no equipment is needed beyond that found in the average home, these games and puzzles actively encourage practice in using reasoning methods. Part I focuses on addition and subtraction, and Part II targets multiplication and division.
An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’,