Dyscalculia
What is dyscalculia?
Dyscalculia is a brain-based condition that makes it hard to make sense of numbers and math concepts. A severe difficulty in maths when the person has normal to above normal intelligence.
This impacts on their ability to learn the times table, subtraction, comparison of numbers and completing work as they take more time to complete maths task.
If affects about 6% of the population and can co-occur with dyslexia (50%)
How do you assess for dyscalculia?
Research into dyscalculia is fairly new so standard assessing for dyscalculia has not be completely established.
Any assessment done needs to consider the person’s intelligence, if other learning difficulties are affecting the maths learning such as dyslexia, ADHD, dyspraxia and also other contributing factors such as anxiety and stress, second language, inconsistent schooling, classroom management etc.
For more information on what is available in Southland please contact Dyslexia Support South.
What classroom accommodations will help?
- Break maths tasks into smaller skills and build on them.
- Focus on verbal reasoning – talk through the maths problems
- Use manipulative such as blocks and coins to link learning to maths skills
- Programmes such as Numicon and Math U See provide hands on manipulatives to aid learning
- Overlearning of new skills and concepts
- Provide instructions in written form
- Give the student a list of maths formulas for reference
- Explicitly teach maths language and highlight the important words in questions
- Check with them verbally to ensure understanding of concepts being taught
- Provide extra time to complete maths tasks