Dyscalculia - what are the signs of dyscalculia in children?

Does your child struggle with mathematical skills such as counting, telling the time or giving and receiving directions? Could your child have dyscalculia? Tara Gardner explains how to recognise the signs of dyscalculia in children.

What is dyscalculia?

Dyscalculia is a condition that affects around three to six per cent of the population. It is not simply an aversion or dislike of mathematics but ‘describes someone at the extreme end of the spectrum, who has “severe” difficulties with maths’, says dyscalculia expert and author Steve Chinn.

In his book Dealing with Dyscalculia, Steve highlights a survey carried out in 2006 in the UK which found that almost 50 per cent of the working population cannot do maths beyond the level taught to 11 year-old pupils in schools.  Whilst this does not necessarily mean that half the UK population has dyscalculia, it shows that many people suffer from a deficiency or anxiety when it comes to mathematics.

Dyscalculia has often been described as dyslexia with numbers but is in fact a completely different condition. It refers to a dysfunction in a person’s ability to understand or work with quantitative or spatial information. It can affect people in different ways, in specific areas, and is predominantly concerned with numbers and arithmetic rather than other elements such as geometry.  Brian Butterworth, the leading expert on dyscalculia, explains that a person with dyscalculia may be ‘a good mathematician but still hopeless with simple calculations’. It is no wonder then that it often goes undiagnosed.

Symptoms of dyscalculia

There are different types of dyscalculia ranging from moderate to severe. A child most likely will be performing below expectations and have specific difficulties in certain areas, such as understanding number values or directions.

Number operations such as addition and subtraction may cause difficulties and children may struggle to distinguish between the symbols, not understanding that sometimes there needs to be differences, such as dividing or multiplying, or even that there is more than one way to carry out a sum. Translating the mathematical problem into concrete or physical examples can also prove challenging.

Children with dyscalculia may also have difficulties with:

• Understanding sequences and instructions
• Money – that a coin may represent different values, giving change and paying for things
• Acquiring spatial orientation and navigational skills – distinguishing left from right and map directions
• Understanding abstract concepts such as time – that a clock represents time and that time can be past, present and future.

Aside from incorrect answers, struggling with these difficulties often results in low self-esteem, feelings of failure and much frustration, which in turn can lead to disruptive behaviour. A child will also begin to associate maths with negative feelings and become highly stressed or anxious about lessons.

Supporting a child with dyscalculia

A report from the Basic Skills Agency found that poor numeracy skills can be more of an obstacle to gaining and keeping a job, than poor literacy skills. It is therefore vital to ensure that all children whatever their abilities, have access to constructive mathematical learning that is tailored to their specific learning needs.

Professor Mahesh Sharma says parents can assist by helping their children to make up the missing arithmetic concepts – for example, show them concrete examples of the sums they are doing, using physical items and examples. This can then support them in making the connection to their current mathematical needs and help them learn a variety of techniques to come up with an answer

Effective teaching of mathematics involves ensuring that the maths is understood and remembered, rather than simply imparting a collection of seemingly arbitrary rules and facts. Steve Chinn agrees – ‘Understanding maths is a much more robust outcome than just trying to remember maths.’

Dyscalculia tips for parents

Dyscalculia is a special educational need which requires diagnosis and appropriate support. This support should furnish children with a positive and personalised mathematical landscape which equips them with the coping and learning strategies they can use both in the classroom and everyday life. Here are some tips on how you can help:

• Provide real examples of when mathematical processes might be used, these will be more memorable – shops are a great mathematical playground
• Break up maths tasks into stages ensuring that they understand each step before they continue
• Ensure your child repeats and practises what they have learnt, encourage them to work independently on this
• Ask your child plenty of questions about what they are doing, so they can explain mathematical processes in their own way
• Once your child gets the hang of what they are doing challenged them further
• Help your child develop a range of strategies they can understand and remember so they can draw from them where appropriate
• Give plenty of praise and positive feedback to your child, it will go a long way to giving them back their confidence with maths.

Calculating dyscalculia

Steve Chinn gives an example of the way a child with dyscalculia would approach and answer a sum:

‘In a subtraction, they are likely to make mistakes in how they carry out a procedure and make errors in facts. So in 93 – 56, they will subtract 3 from 6, maybe remembering that when they first were introduced to subtraction someone said, ‘You take the little from the big.’

Although they may just about be able to subtract 8 from 15 in isolation, if it occurs in a problem such as 65 – 18, they will make an error (such as in the first example).’

Further information on dyscalculia

• The British Dyslexia Association – bdadyslexia.org.uk/dyscalculia.html
• The Dyscalculia Centre – dyscalculia.me.uk
• Dyscalculia.org.uk – dyscalculia.org.uk