Dyscalculia
Developmental dyscalculia is a specific and persistent difficulty in understanding numbers, which can lead to a diverse range of difficulties with mathematics. It will be unexpected in relation to age, level of education and experience, and occurs across all ages and abilities.
What it is
The word dyscalculia is made up of “dys” = difficulty, and calculus = counting stone. Our present understanding of dyscalculia and its effect on learning mathematics is more limited than our understanding of dyslexia and its effect on literacy. Dyscalculia might also be seen as a specific learning difficulty in maths. This is why identifying a child with features of dyscalculia would happen only in exceptional circumstances.
In Leeds, for our working practices, the Inclusion Service uses the British Dyslexia Association Dyscalculia and Maths Difficulties Committee definition of dyscalculia. This definition states:
‘Developmental dyscalculia is a specific and persistent difficulty in understanding numbers, which can lead to a diverse range of difficulties with mathematics. It will be unexpected in relation to age, level of education and experience, and occurs across all ages and abilities.
Mathematics difficulties are best thought of as a continuum, not a distant category, and they have causal factors. Dyscalculia falls at the extreme end of the spectrum and will be distinguishable from other maths issues due to the severity of difficulties with number sense, including subitising, symbolic and non-symbolic magnitude comparison, and ordering.
Developmental dyscalculia can occur singly but often co-occurs with other specific learning difficulties, mathematics anxiety, and medical conditions.’ (P Jarret 2019)
Prevalence
- Dyscalculia is thought to affect between 3-6% of the population to varying degrees (Price and Ansari, 2013).
Routes to identification
- Checklists: A simple list of questions that give an indication of dyscalculia.
- Screening: Using a commercially available tool that can be administered by a non-specialist, although training is recommended.
- Specialist Teacher Assessment: Usually uses a variety of tools to produce a picture of strengths and weaknesses, a more detailed report where the focus is on support strategies.
- Educational Psychologist assessment: Uses a variety of tests (often closed ones) looking at how an individual processes information to build up a picture of strengths and weaknesses.