Dyscalculia, sometimes known as ‘maths dyslexia’ Dyscalculia affects a person’s ability to understand, recall or manipulate numerical information, or conceptualize numbers as abstract concepts. Dyscalculia affects approximately 5% of the population and has a 60% co morbidity with dyslexia. 

“The underlying problem leading to dyscalculia is a core deficit in processing and labelling quantities of objects, which affects the ability to compare numbers.” – Chris Woodin

What are the signs of Dyscalculia?

Dyscalculia describes a difficulty that some people have with number recognition and mental mathematics. There are some common signs of dyscalculia to look out for. For example, someone with dyscalculia might: muddle the numbers 6 as 9; complete basic maths functions such as add, multiply, subtract or divide numbers; struggle to match written numbers to actual numbers of objects; struggle to tell the time. 

Although everyone can occasionally have difficulties with maths, those with dyscalculia struggle to a greater extent and their difficulties continue over time. Everyone’s experience of dyscalculia will vary, but there are common indicators that may suggest further investigation such as a screener assessment may be required.

1) Primary School

– Difficulty in learning and/or recalling basic facts such as number bonds to 10

– Uses fingers rather than counts in their head

– Frequently muddles or misunderstands mathematical symbols (+,-,x,÷)

– Doesn’t understand that 4+6 is the same as 6+4

– Mistakes place value (muddles 10s, 100s, and 1000s)

– Has difficulty understanding mathematical language such as subtract, greater than etc.

– Has trouble keeping score in games or adding money

– Avoids situations such as games that involve numbers. 

2) Secondary School

– Has difficulty reading charts, tables or graphs.

– Can only solve maths problems using one specific approach

– Finds is hard to learn procedures for multi-step calculations

– Has difficulty measuring items (such as when cooking)

– Has difficulty when involved in activities involving the understanding or calculating speed, distance, time.

– Has difficulty calculating change and financial calculations. .

3) Adults

– Has difficulty counting backwards, completing simple maths tasks or remembering maths facts such as times tables.

– Slow to perform mental math calculations

– Has difficulty in estimating or in understanding place value (muddles 10s, 100s, and 1000s)

– High levels of mathematics anxiety and stress. 

– Difficulties in budgeting, saving or financial planning

– Confuses maths symbols (+,-,x,÷)

– Frequently arrives too early or late, difficulties in estimating time, distance, navigation and orientation. 

– Muddles numbers for examples reads 253 and 235

Next steps

– Children – If you suspect that your child may have dyscalculia then you should contact your child’s teacher or the school’s Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) to discuss a plan of action. It is important that appropriate support is put in place as soon as a need is identified.

– Adults – If you feel that the above reflects you, then you can get an indication if you may have dyscalculia from Steve Chinn’s adult dyscalculia checklist. 

– Whilst a formal diagnostic assessment is the only way to confirm whether or not the difficulties you / your child encounters are due to dyscalculia, as the assessment process is much more involved, and the skill set of the dyscalculia assessor are less common, there are few dyscalculia assessors currently working in the UK. 

– At Dyslexia UK we have experienced assessors who conduct dyscalculia screening assessments. The dyscalculia screener can provide an explanation for an individual’s difficulties in school, university or the workplace and the resulting report will provide a detailed examination of the person’s strengths and difficulties, including personalised recommendations for school/university/workplace, specialist teaching and home.

– For information about apps to help people with dyscalculia read the following blog post: https://dyslexiauk.co.uk/dyslexia-blog/f/neurodiverse-friendly-apps-for-dyslexia-dyscalculia

Find out more at: https://kentdyslexia.co.uk/dyscalculia or contact us for any queries or to book an remote dyscalculia screener