Dyscalculia, is very little known, is oftentimes referred to as Number Dyslexia or Numerical Dyslexia. Some of the top internet information sources call it a Math equivalent of Dyslexia. But, is it fair?

Well, the fact is, at some point dyslexia does affect the arithmetic skills of a child. A kid with dyslexia may find trouble in doing math work. They may struggle while naming numerals. They also may struggle with reading word problems, reading number names, and spelling number names. But these challenges are not the same as the issues faced by a person with dyscalculia. Dyscalculia is not a subset of dyslexia but a sole learning disability that requires equal importance. Calling it Number Dyslexia just makes it more confusing than being mean.

The term can suggest very different meanings to what dyscalculia actually is. Dyslexia is a specific learning disorder that affects an individual’s ability to read and spell. It is often used inappropriately as a generic term for other learning issues. Number Dyslexia seems more like difficulty in reading numbers than understanding the mathematical concepts.

Dyscalculia, on the other hand, is the difficulty in understanding numbers, manipulating them, performing mathematical calculations, and learning facts in mathematics. But, it just not stop there. Trouble learning numbers is just a part of what you experience if you are having dyscalculia. It involves concepts, ideas, and reasoning that revolves around mathematics.

What are those ‘other’ symptoms?

We reached out to people suffering from dyscalculia and asked if it’s just about numbers or maths? The responses were rather surprising. We were stunned to see how broadly this can affect a person’s day to day tasks that may or may not be math relevant.

Trouble in understanding sequences, directions, and time are the most frequent issues that a dyscalculic may face. Neuronal dysfunction, that prevents the correct mental representation of numbers, is the driving cause behind it. Activities like map reading, analyzing directions, remembering events and paths pose a great hurdle to their thinking process. It is understandable for a kid to confuse between left or right, but for a grown-up, it could be frustrating.

Another answer to our survey that we came across is trouble in recognizing faces. In research conducted to find the root causes of the dyscalculia, Study of brain imaging showed that there is less brain activity in parietal and frontal areas of the brain that are associated with mathematical cognition. This area is also responsible for the weak performance in basic cognitive tasks in dyscalculic children, including the ability to remember and distinguish faces.

Manpreet Singh

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’, 

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Maths is an important part of our life. We take the help of Mathematics to solve complex real-world phenomena. Having difficulty in numbers can be a daunting experience. It’s surprising to know that, although the roots of this disorder were mentioned way back in the 1940s, yet it is an under-researched subject. Today, we are going to dive into the past and learn about the history of dyscalculia.

The term ‘dyscalculia’ was coined in the 1940s. Dr. Gerstmann was the first to write a paper on a rare neurological disorder that can occur as the result of a brain injury or as a developmental disorder. The discovery was named the Gerstmann syndrome.

The syndrome is characterized by the loss or absence of four cognitive abilities- the loss of the ability to express thoughts in writing (agraphia, dysgraphia), to perform simple arithmetic problems (acalculia), to recognize or indicate one’s own or another’s fingers (finger agnosia), and to distinguish between the right and left sides of one’s body.

It wasn’t until 1974 that dyscalculia came to limelight. The credit is on the research conducted by Dr. Ladislav Kosc. He was the first to describe Developmental Dyscalculia as a disorder in the part of the brain that is for math functions, either hereditary or present from birth, and not that the person is ‘mentally handicapped’.  Kosc defined dyscalculia as “a structural disorder of mathematical abilities.”  Dr. Kosc originally separated dyscalculia into six categories based on students’ abilities or the task that they were having trouble with.

About 40 years later, in the late 1990s, more research was conducted as the popularity of MRI machines for brain disorders grew. The results revealed that Dyscalculia exists where one or more parts of the brain, responsible for basic calculations, can’t coordinate well.

David Geary further investigated the causes of dyscalculia by dividing his research into three groups:  semantic, procedural, and visual-spatial memory.  Geary determined that students with mathematical disabilities included all students who fell below the 35th percentile on the Woodcock-Johnson Mathematics reasoning test.  He used the term ‘Maths disability‘ to refer to the dyscalculia.

Manpreet Singh

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’, 

The post History of Dyscalculia appeared first on Number Dyslexia.

Today, we are going to talk about the symptoms of Dyscalculia. How can the signs of dyscalculia be identified early?

But first, we must know what exactly dyscalculia is?

Dyscalculia is a life long learning disability affecting a person’s ability to understand numbers and learn math facts. It is seen as the mathematical equivalent to dyslexia and hence, the name – Number Dyslexia. It severely affects the life of a dyscalculic (commonly referred to a person suffering from dyscalculia). Individuals may lose the ability to visually interpret data. In severe cases, Number dyslexia may develop into math phobia.

What are we gonna do about it?

Don’t worry. Just being a little cautious towards child behavior can help a long way in his/her future. Early you identify the signs, earlier the child will be able to adapt to a new learning process and overcome the struggle. It’s important to keep a daily check of the child’s learning pattern. Look up to his/her stuff such as homework, class test sheets, etc. to investigate any possible signs of dyscalculia. If found, don’t panic. Consult a qualified school psychologist or special education worker right away.

What signs we should look for?

Dyscalculia is still an under-researched and understudied subject. Thus, there is no definite list of symptoms. The symptoms may change person to person. Severity may alter as the child grows. Please note that not all children may show all symptoms, and kids might occasionally have trouble with math. But children with dyscalculia will struggle a lot more than other kids who are the same age.

Below given checklist can give you a better idea of dyscalculia signs at different age timeline.

Signs and symptoms of dyscalculia in children

1. Preschool or Kindergarten

• Dyscalculic children have trouble in counting. They miss numbers while counting. They have difficulty operating addition sequences in mind. Dyscalculics, at this age, can’t relate arithmetic with real-life concepts. For instance, asking to hand over two apples will generally end up him/her bringing the whole pack of it.
• Troubles in recognizing, forming patterns and distinguishing by size, shape, or color. Dyscalculics generally have a low ability to do comparisons at this age.
• Dyscalculics will find it difficult to relate words to numerals – could not tell 8 or ‘Eight’ are the same. Their power of processing of written numbers is relatively less than a non-dyscalculic. They can’t quantify numbers as we can when a number comes up in our minds. For them, 7 maybe just one shorter and another long line connected at an angle.
• Have trouble remembering numbers and other fundamentals arithmetic facts. They are generally slower in oral tests and need more effort to memorize stuff

2. Grade School or Middle School

• Children with dyscalculia or number dyslexia at this age will have difficulty remembering fundamental facts of mathematics such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. For us, 2+ 8 = 10, but for dyscalculics, they have to put much effort to process their memory power to know what’s 2 and 8 and what are we doing with it.
• Dyscalculics are usually less capable to do mental math and have to rely on fingers to count.
• Students with dyscalculia will have trouble in understanding arithmetic symbols and often mess up equations like using ÷ in place of +, doing subtraction even though the question asked to do addition.
• Comparison symbols, like < or >, and terms like greater than or smaller than are a nightmare for them.
• Often times, they forget to apply the BODMAS rule to solve math questions.
• Individuals suffering from number-dyslexia at this age will have trouble relating math to real-world concepts. They will find it difficult to keep up with the scorecard in sports, calculating the price of items, pocket money, show timings, countdown, and stopwatch.
• Try to avoid situations involving mathematics such as board games, puzzles, studying, revisions and etc.

3. High School

• Students with dyscalculia may lack the ability to fully understand diagrams, analyze charts and decipher graphs.
• The ability to relate the real world with maths may lack. Dyscalculics will find trouble in calculations relating to money. Difficulty in keeping up with the records of expenditure and savings.
• They lack the sense of measurability like filling beaker up to the mark, using a measuring tape to measure distances, Distance = speed * time related calculations.
• They can get confused while explaining or receiving directions.
• Has trouble finding different approaches to the same math problem, such as simplifying 4x +24y = 100 as x + 6y = 25.
• Struggles to learn and understand reasoning methods and multi-step calculation procedures
• Negative attitude towards mathematics. In severe cases, developing a sense of phobia for math affecting other subjects as well.

Signs and symptoms of dyscalculia in adults

Typical symptoms include:

• They may still lack to fundamentals of mathematics
• They need the effort to perform calculations and usually take a longer time than others.
• Dyscalculics are usually less capable to do mental math and have to rely on fingers to count
• Dyscalculics may still lack number sense and poor ability to make estimates.
• Difficulty in understanding place value
• Messing up math equations and using addition often than any other operations.
• Negative attitude towards mathematics. In severe cases, developing a sense of phobia for math affecting other activities as well.

Other symptoms

Some of the signs and symptoms other than the mentioned above are given below. It’s because they really didn’t fit any particular age group. The occurrence of these symptoms may not be directly related to age or mathematics.

1. Having difficulty in reading. Either read slow or need full effort to manipulate words and make sentences.

2. Lack of focus. Dyscalculics will often struggle to put all their attention towards one thing at a time.

3. Spatial difficulties (not good at drawing, visualization, remembering arrangements of objects, understanding time/direction)

4. Short term memory difficulties (the literature on the relation between these and dyscalculia is very controversial)

5. Dyscalculics may have poor coordination of movement. It is referred to as dyspraxia.

6. Trouble analyzing trajectory. Our mind works in a way that when a ball is thrown to us, our brain starts processing parameters like speed, angle of projection, acceleration, wind, and gravity. On the basis of these parameters, the brain prepare calculations that derive our possibility of catching the ball or not. This brain’s ability to crack the code of the trajectory may lack in the dyscalculics.

7. Difficulty telling time, especially from an analog clock.

Manpreet Singh

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’, 

The post Signs And Symptoms Of Dyscalculia appeared first on Number Dyslexia.

What is Dyscalculia (or Number Dyslexia)?

Dyscalculia is a term used for a wide range of life-long learning disabilities involving maths, mostly numbers, and arithmetic skills. Other names of Dyscalculia are Number Dyslexia, Numerical Dyslexia, and Math Dyslexia. It is generally seen as the mathematical equivalent of dyslexia.

Dyscalculia is often confused with math anxiety, which has a different pathology but shows similar signs.

Difficulty in understanding numbers, manipulating them, performing mathematical calculations, and learning facts in mathematics are some of the common known traits of this disorder.

It is also marked by visual difficulties such as processing and distinguishing visuals, pattern recognition, working memory for numbers and formulas, retrieval of learned facts and procedures, directional confusion, processing speed, and time. Perhaps, there is no single form of math disability, and difficulties vary from person to person.

According to the British Dyslexia Association, Dyscalculia is likely to occur in 3% – 6% of the population. Dyslexia and Dyscalculia relation is independent in nature. Research suggests that 40 to 50 percent of dyslexics show no signs of this number dyslexia. They perform at least as well in maths as other children, with about 10 percent achieving at a higher level. The remaining 50 to 60 percent do have difficulties with maths.

Common Signs and Symptoms

Dyscalculia is still an under-researched subject, hence, there is no single definite measure of symptoms involved.  Till date observations suggest that symptoms of this math disability vary with age. As the child grows, the perspective towards math also changes. Severity may alter as time goes.

The list can be huge if every other aspect, such as age, country, environment, etc. is taken into account. Refer to our blog post explaining the topic in detail. For now, let us discuss the common signs and symptoms often observed in an individual suffering from number-dyslexia. Keep in mind that not all children may show all symptoms, and kids might occasionally have trouble with math. But children with number dyslexia will struggle a lot more than other kids who are the same age. Their struggles will continue over time, too.

• Trouble counting. Unable to build a counting strategy in mind, for eg. 3+1 = 4, hence the number after 3 is 4.
• Poor understanding of the signs +, -, ÷ and x, or may confuse these mathematical symbols.
• Difficulties in memorizing arithmetic facts. Difficulty in memorizing simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division
• Difficulty with times tables.
• Difficulty analyzing the connection between roman numerals and numbers.
• May have trouble even with a calculator due to difficulties in the process of feeding in variables.
• May reverse or transpose similar-looking numbers for example 96 for 69, or  669 for 966.
• Difficulty with conceptualizing time and judging the passing of time.
• Difficulty with everyday tasks like checking change.
• Difficulty analyzing pattern.
• Inability to comprehend financial planning or budgeting, sometimes even at a basic level, for example, estimating the cost of the items in a shopping basket or balancing a checkbook.
• Unable to memorize mathematical concepts, rules, formulae, and sequences.
• May have a poor sense of direction (i.e., north, south, east, and west), potentially even with a compass.
• Difficulty analyzing the projectory and unable to do proper measurements.

Diagnosis

As mentioned earlier, kids might occasionally have trouble with math. But children with number dyslexia will struggle a lot more than other kids who are the same age.  In that case, a qualified school psychologist or special education worker’s advice is important. Dyscalculia could be a valid reason. Common diagnosis practice involves direct interaction with the child. The evaluator might ask for family history.

Some of the well-known tests for diagnosis are –

Wechsler Intelligence Scale Test: The test aims at the mental perception of a child towards math. The ability to solve math problems in the head is tested.

Brian Butterworth’s Screener Test

Woodcock-Johnson IV Calculation Test: How efficiently the child can solve mathematical operations such as addition, BODMAS rule application, etc. are tested.

WIAT-III Math Problem Solving Test: Arithmetic skills, quantitative understanding, forming relation strategy, and ability to break the word problem is tested via. WIAT-III test.

Causes of Dyscalculia

There is no fixed consensus on what causes the dyscalculia, but neuroimaging investigations conducted by researchers reveal that Dyscalculia occurs due to a congenital condition, meaning that genetic factor is involved. Other than that the environment around also plays a role. However, cause for one individual may not be the same as for another, and in many cases, it may not be obvious.

Genetic causes include known genetic disorders such as Turner’s syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, Velocardiofacial syndrome, Williams syndrome. In addition, studies suggest that there are genes present in the general population which increase the risk of dyscalculia. Further, Any injury to the brain may develop into ‘acquired dyscalculia.’

Children’s mental mathematical exercise during the primary school years generally involves translating real objects into numerical concepts, such as the tower of boxes to teach addition and multiplication. This manipulation of numbers with real objects is the building block of our strong visual memory. If left abandoned, could really hinder our pace in concept visualization and hence, could result in Number Dyslexia.

Dyscalculia examples

How exactly does dyscalculia impact people? Let’s try to understand it with the help of a few examples. These examples can demonstrate the challenges people with dyscalculia face in their lives on a daily basis.

1. Difficulty in counting and diminished memory of numbers: You give as much practice as you can and the child does not show any improvement in grasping ability. The children with dyscalculia have poor working memory related to numbers. For example, they may not come up with correct answers to problems like dodging numbers, adding by 5s, 3s, 10s, etc. Also, they may give different answers to numeric problems like ‘12+5 equal to what’, every time they try to solve it.
2. Difficulty in understanding math symbols: The dyscalculic students are not comfortable with solving numerical problems lexically, that is, by carrying out operations using operational signs. They may count on fingers, or use manipulatives to get an idea of addition or subtraction but may not show fluency with mathematical signs like division, ratio, percentage, and other elementary ones.
3. Poor pattern intelligence or nil knowledge of number sequencing: Dyscalculics find it hard to identify a pattern or sequence in a series of numbers provided. Inability to understand the logic behind why 8 is next number to a series 2, 4 and 6 is one of the examples of poor pattern or sequencing ability.
4. Measurement hassles: Dyscalculics cannot keep up with the concepts of time and space. They may stumble upon stairs due to inability to judge height, or may drop catches due to the inability to gauge speed with which the ball is coming to them. Also, they find it difficult to remember units of measurement.
5. Difficulty in following the sequence of operations involved in solving a mathematical problem: Inability to follow and remember the order of operations is another example that demonstrates Dyscalculia-related issues.

All these examples arise from the problems in memory conditions. According to a thesis^[1], these issues arise due to shortcomings in semantic memory, procedural memory, and visuospatial memory. The different neural composition or weaknesses in the number-processing part of the brain translate into a student’s discomfort with numbers.

Treatment

The first and most important of the successful treatment of Dyscalculia is early diagnosis. The earlier the problem is identified, the earlier the child will adapt to a new learning process and will be able to avoid other co-occurring issues.

By treatment, we meant the exercises to improve the mental health of the child instead of generic medicines. There are no medications for dyscalculia.

A big part of the plan could only be achieved with supportive teaching. Teachers must understand the pace and level of the child. Teachers could involve math-based learning tasks/games in their schedule.

Special care could go a long way in improving the mental health of the child. Extra time may be given other than class hours to enhance math skills.

If teaching complex equations, it would be more convenient for the child if step-by-step instructions are provided by the teacher to tackle the problem.

Children must be taught a sense of how numbers and equations apply to our daily life. Teach them how many apples are bought? How many cars are parked? How many spoons of sugar is required to make this tea?

References

[1] Cornue, Julia W. 2018. Exploring Dyscalculia and Its Effects on Math Students. Master’s thesis, Harvard Extension School.

Manpreet Singh

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’, 

The post Number Dyslexia: Everything to know about Dyscalculia appeared first on Number Dyslexia.