Dyscalculia: Students Burdened by blunders with numbers

Between 3 and 6% of schoolchildren suffer from an arithmetic-related learning disability.

Researchers at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich now show that these children are also more likely to exhibit deficits in reading and spelling than had been previously suspected.

Addition and subtraction, multiplication and division are the four basic operations in arithmetic, but for some children, learning these fundamental skills is particularly challenging.

Studies show that they have problems grasping the concepts of number, magnitude, and quantity, and that they do poorly when asked to estimate relative amounts.

In mathematics classes they consistently lag behind, although they have little difficulty in subjects. In other words, they suffer from a highly specific learning disorder, which psychologists call 'dyscalculia'.

In total, about 5% of second- to fourth-graders manifest the condition.

Depending on which arithmetical operation is tested, the prevalence of the disorder varies between 3 and 6%.

These figures emerge from a new study carried out by LMU researchers led by Professor Gerd Schulte-Körne, Director of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, which has just been published.

The data are based on tests carried out on 1633 third- and fourth-graders in schools in the Munich area.

An arithmetic-related deficit can have a drastic effect on overall scholastic achievement and on the psychological development of the children affected.

They are reluctant to go to school because they are afraid of being perceived as failures and embarrassing themselves in front of their classmates.

Wherever possible, they resort to the use of avoidance strategies and develop a negative self-image. In the end, their performance also suffers in subjects in which they are perfectly capable.

Their lack of mathematical skills usually precludes them from going on to the type of secondary school for which their level of intelligence would otherwise qualify them, and impedes their chances of higher education.

Indeed, so long as they continue to get bad marks in mathematics, their chances of even completing secondary school remain low.

A promising training model
Schulte-Körne complains that the problems of children who suffer from dyscalculia are often overlooked in everyday classroom routine.

Furthermore, unlike the situation in the case of dyslexic disorders, there is no provision in Bavarian schools for adapting the learning environment so as to alleviate the burden on these children, he adds.

"This is not an appropriate response to a disorder that has a biological basis," he says.

It would, for example, be perfectly possible to give such children more time to complete their classwork in mathematics, to give them extra help, and even to refrain altogether from assigning a formal mark to their performance in the subject.

The new study, however, also shows that developmental deficits in cognition can affect more than one learning domain.

The LMU researchers found the prevalence of so-called comorbidity to be far higher than has been previously recognized.

According to psychologist Dr. Kristina Moll, first author on the new report, about 57% of children who have an arithmetic-related learning disorder also suffer from a reading or spelling disability.

"These data were quite a surprise for us", Schulte-Körne confesses. "This finding forces us to think again about diagnostic procedures for specific learning disorders but, above all, about how we can more effectively treat these conditions," Moll adds.

"These children need intensive and specific training and support. Otherwise, they are in danger of failing to achieve the scholastic success that would be compatible with their general level of intelligence."

As Schulte-Körne points out, effective approaches to the mitigation of dyscalculia are already available. These, however, require intensive, long-term training programs for the children affected.

In addition, the new study reveals that gender also appears to play a role in determining susceptibility to specific learning disorders, says Schulte-Körne: "While deficits in spelling are more prevalent among boys, girls are more likely to display dyscalculia. Reading difficulties, on the other hand, appear to be equally prevalent in both sexes."

The reasons for these striking findings remain unclear. Schulte-Körne suspects that biological factors are responsible, given that the learning environments experienced by both sexes are very similar.

Learn basic facts about dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia and ADHD - Video

Learn basic facts about dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia and ADHD and visit LD.org for resources on how to get the most out of your relationship with your child's doctor.

Credit for video goes to the National Center for Learning Disabilities

Dyslexia v Dyscalculia: Maths v Reading

One of the important areas for understanding learning disorders is learning about the prevalence and specificity of various types of disorders.

It is estimated that Dyscalculia, the maths disorder or disability, is present in about 7% of school children.

It is possible that Dyscalculia simply represents a component of a more general learning disability.

If this is true, there should be a large overlap between Dyscalculia and other learning disorders, such as Dyslexia, the reading disorder.

A well-designed longitudinal study of cognitive and academic ability from Donald Compton and colleagues at Vanderbilt University is information in addressing this issue.

They completed a longitudinal study of 684 students from 3rd grade through the 5th grade assessing four academic achievement domains:

• reading comprehension
• word reading
• applied math problems
• math calculation skills

Additionally, they examined five student cognitive skills including: non-verbal problem solving, processing speed, concept formation, language and working memory.

The key finding from their study is that Dyscalculia in general terms, appears to be a specific disorder.

Although 3.8% of their school children sample had both Dyslexia (reading disorder) and Dyscalculia (math /calculations disorder), 10.1% were estimated to have only Dyscalculia and 6.6% were estimated to have only Dyslexia.

They noted their "results indicate that, although co-morbidity (the co-existance of Dyslexia and Dyscalculia together in one person) does occur, it is limited to approximately 20% of student with learning disability. This adds credence to the notion that reading and mathematics learning disability may be distinct and separate".

Background
Differences between Dyscalculia and Dyslexia included the following:

• Boys had higher rates of Dyslexia, reading comprehension learning disability, while Dyscalculia (math problem and calculation types) were found equally in boy and girl students
• Both Dyscalculia and Dyslexia rates were linked to student poverty status-students in the lowest socio-economic group had higher rates of both math and reading disorders.
• Both Dyscalculia and Dyslexia students showed relative strength in the processing speed cognitive domain

This study lends support to Dyscalculia being a specific type of learning disability that often occurs without Dyslexia as a co-occurring reading disorder.

Dyscalculia appears to be the most common learning disability in girl students.

Reference
Compton DL, Fuchs LS, Fuchs D, Lambert W, & Hamlett C (2012). The cognitive and academic profiles of reading and mathematics learning disabilities. Journal of learning disabilities, 45 (1), 79-95 PMID: 21444929

Olive Hickmott: Empowering Learning New Year message

Let me first wish you, my valued reader, a very prosperous and highly successful New Year in 2013.

I am sure you have spent some time in the last week reflecting on your life and family in 2012 and are planning a whole set of new adventures for 2013.

This week I received a message from my original guide and mentor, Olive Hickmott, from Empowering Learning, which may me reflect on how we got started on this path.

I would like to share this message with you and to let you know that Olive has Dyslexia herself but with great fortitude and determination, pursued a very successful career in engineering, before her retirement.

She is herself an example of a talented person with dyslexia developing into a self-determining, success story but not content with her own success she has spent the last 7 years coaching and mentoring dyslexic children.

Her aim; to help children break through their barriers to education and overcome their low self esteem; use the talents they have to learn in their own way, one that makes perfect sense to them; set them on a life-changing path of self discovery and development.

I invite you to read Olive's message. It says a lot of the progress being made in overcoming Dyslexia and other cognitive processing disorders and, I hope it will give you some more cause for optimism in 2013. It may even spark some new ideas and paths for you to follow.

"It is a very different world than when I (Olive) started work back in 2005 on literacy challenges. 

People are much more open to seeing different perspectives, identifying the exceptional talents of learning differently and overcoming the challenges. 

In 2013 we want all our exceptionally talented children and adults, who learn in a different way, to think about how they are being taught, to excel in their chosen areas, that are often very creative.

As our contribution to this, we are looking:

• to reach as many children and adult across the world as possible, so they can learn how to simply improve their literacy, numeracy, concentration and so much more, even when they have a diagnosis of Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, ADHD, Asperger's or Autism. - These new skills will further develop their exceptional (mainly visual) skills and eradicate many of the negative symptoms associated with these challenges.
• to assist families and Practitioners to be as successful as they can be in their communities.

To achieve this we are building a larger and stronger international community of people with the skills to teach people who learn differently. 

The level 1 Practitioner programme is now available as a single day in Hertfordshire, UK, as a set of live weekly tele-seminars and as a home study programme that you can access whenever is convenient for you, plus on-line coaching to answer any questions. 

Recently, we have trained Practitioners and parents on-line in Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Zimbabwe, USA, throughout the UK and in January we will be adding a Dyslexia school in Kenya plus our first practitioner in New Zealand. 

These are exciting times to join the team, you don't need previous qualifcations, just an enthusiasm to make a difference to others.

In 2013 we will see the results of the Practitioners' research projects in Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Ireland plus my literacy and numeracy research through the International Association for Health and Learning for a community of nursing undergraduates in England.

I also hope to have several practitioners replicating my work in different Universities across the UK. 

In addition we expect to get the level 1 programme its first international accreditation.

When you become a Practitioner, you will have all the tools you need to succeed:

• Free monthly Continuous Professional Calls
• Workbooks for literacy, numeracy and more in development
• An accreditation process and product discount
• Commission for referrals
• Free Youtube video introductions for your clients
• Access to an on-line training platform
• Low cost upgrade training for those trained before September 2011.

This is a readymade business that can give you immense personal satisfaction and make a real difference to peoples' lives."

I hope that was of interest and you can read more about Olive's work with Empowering Learning here.

Measuring Intelligence: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is a test designed to measure intelligence in adults and older adolescents. It is currently in its fourth edition (WAIS-IV).

The original WAIS (Form I) was published in February 1955 by David Wechsler, as a revision of the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale.

The fourth edition of the test (WAIS-IV) was released in 2008 by Pearson.

The Wechsler-Bellevue tests were innovative in the 1930s because they gathered tasks created for nonclinical purposes for administration as a "clinical test battery".

Because the Wechsler tests included non-verbal items (known as performance scales) as well as verbal items for all test-takers, and because the 1960 form of Lewis Terman's Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales was less carefully developed than previous versions, Form I of the WAIS surpassed the Stanford-Binet tests in popularity by the 1960s.

Wechsler defined intelligence as "... the global capacity of a person to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his environment."

Sunbird Educational Products Fruit & Veg Maths - YouTube

Fruit and Veg Maths is a truely interactive maths resource. Not because it can be used on an electronic whiteboard but because it can be manipulated by the teacher and/or the students.

It’s colourful and bright and guaranteed to keep your students engaged in maths lessons. Our resources are created to show students that maths lessons can be fun and interesting.

Fruit and Veg Maths allows children to practise real world situations when they are given a shopping list and have to calculate the cost.

Sunbird Educational Products

Skills Rocket: Reading Software - YouTube

Learn about the up-to-date software you can access on today's market to help you with reading.

Skills Rocket is a FREE e-learning website developed by Chartered Occupational Psychologist Nicola James.

Access a range of extra hints and tips for Adults with Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia, AD(H)D and other Neuro Differences to help improve your reading skills. Simply register for free and watch your Skills Rocket!

Dyscalculia: Recognising Consciousness

Students who struggle to learn mathematics may have a neurocognitive disorder that inhibits the acquisition of basic numerical and arithmetic concepts, according to a new paper.

Specialised teaching for individuals with dyscalculia, the mathematical equivalent of dyslexia, should be made widely available in mainstream education, according to a review of current research published in the journal Science.

Dyscalculia Search Results from Science Journal

Although just as common as dyslexia, with an estimated prevalence of up to 7% of the population, dyscalculia has been neglected as a disorder of cognitive development.

However, a world-wide effort by scientists and educators has established the essential neural network that supports arithmetic, and revealed abnormalities in this network in the brains of dyscalulic learners.

Neuroscience research shows what kind of help is most needed, strengthening simple number concepts.

This can be achieved with appropriate specially-designed teaching schemes, which can be supported by game-like software that adapts to the learner’s current level of competence.

Prof Brian Butterworth Profile at UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience

Professor Brian Butterworth, co-author of the paper and a member of the Centre for Educational Neuroscience (CEN) from the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, said: “Dyscalculia is at least as much of a handicap for individuals as dyslexia and a very heavy burden on the state, with the estimated cost to the UK of low numeracy standing at £2.4 billion.”

Prof Brian Butterworth's website; The Mathematical Brain

“Nevertheless, there are only cursory references to the disorder on the Department of Education website, no indications are offered for help either for learners, teachers or parents. It’s as if the government does not want to acknowledge its existence.”

Like dyslexia, dyscalculia is a condition we are born with, and may be heritable in many or most cases. Research from twins and special populations suggests that an arithmetical disability has a large genetic component, but the genes responsible have not yet been located.

Dyscalculia = Maths oriented Dyslexia

We have heard a number of stories concerning the lack of awareness and knowledge about Dyscalculia but we are always amazed and shocked when it pertains to educational institutes and teachers.

Recallinga recent letter concerning a mother and her daughter, who is in college working on her associates degree. She was doing very well in all her classes, with one exception, maths, and then only within the criteria of timed tests.

She had been tested when she was much younger and been told that she had issues with stress or timed testing of maths. Her parents tried to explain the circumstances to the college. They asked if their daughter could be tested in a one to one learning centre with supervision, but without the stressful time limits. Unfortunately, the institution said no and were very unsympathetic to the parent's and their daughter's plight.

Sadly, we are told that the college personnel and teachers were very dismissive and acted as if the family were imagining the condition or simply making the whole thing up. We find this completely unacceptable in this modern world where inclusion, accessibility and usability is uppermost in all our minds. Educational institutes sole role is to enable learning and comprehension NOT to create difficulties by exclusion, squashing enthusiasm and promoting elitism.

For parents and students in a similar situation there is a supportive and helpful forum on the Dyscalculia website; The Dyscalculia Forum. There’s even a good chance a member is close where you live and maybe know a local place to get help.

If you’re in the US you can find local learning disability associations on the LDA USA website. They are a good source for local facilities, support and testing. It is important that you seek support from your community and not work too much in isolation, especially in raising awareness and in communicating your needs to the colleges and institutions.

Raising awareness for Dyscalculia is extremely important because it is still somewhat unrecognised all over the world. You will come across barriers to understanding but remember that Dyscalculia is medically approved in the scientific and educational world and falls into the same category as dyslexia, and has been for Decades.

Dyscalculia is clearly described, and accepted, in Both the DSM-IV and WHO ICD-10, which is the global medical registers used by doctors and mental health professionals to diagnose. It would be useful for you to seek this out and to get good copies made, to distribute to non-believers or misinformed educators. Thus, helping raise awareness and your cause through evidence-based research.

Unfortunately, you do need to become a pseudo or mini expert on dyscalculia to respond to the ignorance of others and to not only answer their questions but also to know what you are talking about. Also you should contact a local association and ask for their support and advocacy.

You will not only be helping your own or your family's situation you will be helping the many people who are excluded by the mere fact they have a Maths Dyscalculia.

Dyslexia and Co-occuring Conditions: Presentation

Dyslexia Action Training and Professional Development Presentation on Dyslexia and Co-occurring difficulties.

In this webinar, Glenys Heap, Dyslexia Action's Director of CPD discussed the key issues related to learning difficulties frequently co-occurring with dyslexia such as dyspraxia, ADHD, etc

Mobile Accessibility for Poorly Sighted - Demo UK - Android Market

This application has been designed for people who are blind or partly sighted but it could equally work with people with word or number blidness.



Visit the site for more information Mobile Accessibility Demo UK - Android Market

This application has been designed for people who are blind, partly sighted or sight impaired.

This is a fully functional 30 days evaluation version of Mobile Accessibility.

Mobile Accessibility is a screen-access application which allows people who are blind or have low vision to use an Android phone in an intuitive, easy and simple way.

Mobile Accessibility is two products in one:

- It is a suite of 10 accessible applications (Phone, Contacts, SMS, Alarm, Calendar, Email, Web, Where am I, Apps and Settings) which have been especially designed for the blind and visually impaired. They all have a simplified interface whose textual information is spoken using Nuance Vocalizer® voice synthesis.

- It is also a screen reader which allows you to get out of the suite and navigate the standard interface of your phone.
Please note that if you want to use the screen reader functionality of Mobile Accessibility you will need a phone with physical navigational controls such as a trackball or trackpad.

Inside the Mobile Accessibility suite of accessible applications you can do the following:

- Phone: Make calls, answer calls, hear the caller ID and manage your call log.
- Contacts: Manage your contacts, even those from social networks such as Facebook.
- SMS: Compose and read short messages. Manage conversations.
- Alarms: Set your alarms.
- Web: Full web browser experience, similar to what you can find on your PC. Jump by the control of your choice (links, paragraphs, headings, forms, etc.) to navigate faster to the information of your interest. Bookmark your favourite webpages.
- Calendar: Create, edit and delete a calendar entry. View all events per day, week or month.
- Email: Full access to your Gmail account.
- Where am I? : GPS application that gives you updates on your current location.
- Apps: Access the list of apps installed on your Android phone.
- Settings: Change ringtone. Configure feedback and notifications (vibration or audio). Configure keyboard echo, punctuation verbosity, speech pitch and rate, etc.
- Quick access to date and time, phone status information such as battery level and network coverage, number of missed calls and unread messages, etc.

Main Highlights:

- Touch navigation: You can use Mobile Accessibility not only with the trackball or the physical keyboard of your phone, but also with its touchscreen! Simply move your finger around the screen and the voice synthesis will read the text located under your finger. Or if you prefer, you can also swipe up/down/right/left and tap on the screen to navigate through the interface. And if you wish you can enable sound and vibration feedback.

- Easy to input text: In or outside the Mobile Accessibility suite you can use the touch qwerty keyboard as well as the speech recognition to write text quickly and easily. Imagine writing an SMS or an Email using your voice only... just great!

- Voice synthesis: Code Factory has been making mobile phones accessible to the blind and visually impaired for many years now, and we know that the voice matters... and a lot! For Mobile Accessibility Code Factory has partnered with Nuance® and Vocalizer® is therefore the voice of Mobile Accessibility.

Dyscalculia is Maths Dyslexia: Youtube Video

Dyscalulia: What are you afraid of?

Top Ten Things that scare a Dyscalculic:

1. Going into a bank to carry out any sort of financial transaction, especially getting foreign currency for vacations.

2. Cash registers. Either using one or paying at one.

3. Paying bills. Either online or in person.

4. Counting out coins while someone is waiting e.g. the cashier or a customer waiting impatiently behind you.

5. Card games! All those petty rules and stuff. Try and have patience when explaining the rules to a person with dyscalulia, even if it is each time they play.

6. Recalling combinations of numbers e.g. PIN Numbers, social security numbers, etc.

7. Calculators! They don’t always help someone who is dyscalculic. Check for one's that are approved.

8. Other peoples’ puzzled reactions when you talk about or try to explain, dyscalculia.

9. Getting lost! The latest trend of using your GPS to get around helps a lot!

10. The Metric System, especially trying to convert between it and yo olde Imperial measures.

Dyscalculia: Working with business

Imagine waking in the morning without being able to tell the time, or buying groceries and being unable to check your change. All seemingly simple mathematical tasks for most people, but for up to an estimated six percent of the UK adult population with dyscalculia, this is a daily reality.

Tested only in children until now, an estimated three to six¹ percent of adults could have the ‘hidden disability’ dyscalculia which affects the fundamental ability to acquire arithmetical skills.

Many are still unidentified. Developed by Loughborough University’s Mathematics Education Centre (MEC) in partnership with assistive technology specialist iansyst Ltd (www.iansyst.co.uk) and public sector service provider Tribal, DysCalculiUM is the UK’s first online screener to highlight adults displaying signs of dyscalculia.

Only recognised in recent years, in the same way dyslexia was 30 years ago, dyscalculia has led to many people being labelled (or labelling themselves) as stupid because they cannot do ‘simple sums’.

With statistics showing that people with poor numeracy skills are twice as likely to be unemployed as those who are competent², dyscalculia can impact dramatically on the life chances of those with the condition.

The average person uses maths up to 14 times a day³, resulting in dyscalculics facing many challenges and frustrations with simple tasks such as household budgeting, calculating credit card interest rates or helping their children with homework.

As up to sixty percent of people with dyslexia have difficulties with maths₄, very little research has focused solely on dyscalculia and how to overcome it.

Following the study of a student with fundamental numerical and mathematical difficulties displaying no signs of dyslexia, experts at Loughborough University’s MEC identified the need for an adult dyscalculia screener. DysCalculiUM now marks the first step towards identifying dyscalculia and enabling individuals to seek further help.


More at Loughborough University - Working with business

Math Dyslexia = Dyscalculia

Math Dyslexia = Dyscalculia, Tennessee, daughter of American poet Ishmael

Ever joked about having MATH DYSLEXIA? It's called dyscalculia. 5% of the world is affected, but no one seems to know it exists. We need to change that.

The Dyscalculia Forum is a global nonprofit support forum. Not selling anything, just spreading the word.

http://www.dyscalculiaforum.com

Dyslexia: Learning difficulties may be centred in the eye

Dyslexia: Learning difficulties may be centred in the eye

Inside the eye, the retina contains a number of cells that respond to specific types of stimuli. Some react to certain colours, while others react to contrast or movement.

These cells individually gather information that combined provides our overall visual experience. One group of cells is called magno cells. These are the cells that respond to rapid movements, transmitting signals from the eye to the brain.

The information they send transforms what we see into live video. Without these cells, our brains would only perceive a series of still photos with no direct relationship, much like a comic book.

NTNU researchers suspect that the failure of magno cells to work the way they should may explain multiple learning disabilities and developmental problems.

From motor skills to math problems

Imagine that you are trying to catch a ball. If you can't quite perceive how the ball travels in relation to your body, you will be a bit awkward when you try to catch it. Or, as the experts say: Your motor skills are less precise than they should be.

But individuals who suffer from motor skill difficulties often have other problems too: Between three and eight per cent of school children have great difficulty learning mathematics (dyscalculia). About half of these individuals also have reading difficulties (dyslexia), and motor development problems.

It has long been known that several types of learning disabilities often occur together but the cause for this has not been understood.

Understanding leads to healing

understanding the underlying causes of learning disabilities can lead to a new approach to pedagogical methods. Children with dysfunctional magno cells probably need more specific tools to help them understand visual information than we previously thought. "The educational challenge is finding teaching techniques that make it easier for visual information to get to the areas of the brain where it will be processed further,"

Dyscalculia: Defined by the National Center for Learning Disabilities

What is dyscalculia?
Dyscalculia is a term referring to a wide range of life-long learning disabilities involving the manipulation of numbers, arithemtic and maths.

There is no single form of maths disability, and difficulties vary from person to person. It affects people differently, both in school and throughout life.

What are the effects of dyscalculia?
Since disabilities involving maths can be so different, the effects they have on a person's development can be just as different e.g. a person who has trouble processing language will face different challenges in maths than a person who has difficulty with visual - spatial relationships.

Another person with trouble remembering facts and keeping a sequence of steps in order, will have yet a different set of maths-related challenges to overcome.

Early childhood
Clearly, building a solid foundation in maths involves many different skills. Young children with learning disabilities can have difficulty with;

• learning the meaning of numbers (number sense),
• trouble with tasks like sorting objects by shape, size or color;
• recognising groups and patterns;
• comparing and contrasting using concepts like smaller/bigger or taller/shorter.

Learning to count, recognising numbers and matching numbers with amounts can also be difficult for these children.

School-age children
As maths learning continues, school-age children with language processing disabilities may have difficulty solving basic number problems using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

They struggle to remember and retain basic mathematical facts (i.e. times tables), and have trouble figuring out how to apply their knowledge and skills to solve number problems.

Difficulties may also arise because of weakness in visual-spatial skills, where a person may understand the needed mathematical facts, but have difficulty putting them down on paper in an organised way.

Visual-spatial difficulties can also be challenging, when trying to understand what is written on a board or in a textbook.

Teenagers & adults
If basic mathematical facts are not mastered, many teenagers and adults with dyscalculia may have difficulty moving on to more advanced math applications. Language processing disabilities can make it hard for a person to get a grasp of the vocabulary of math. Without the proper vocabulary and a clear understanding of what the words represent, it is difficult to build on math knowledge.

Success in more advanced math procedures requires that a person be able to follow multi-step procedures. For individuals with learning disabilities, it may be hard to visualize patterns, different parts of a math problem or identify critical information needed to solve equations and more complex problems.

What are the warning signs?
Since math disabilities are varied, the signs that a person may have a difficulty in this area can be just as varied. However, having difficulty learning math skills does not necessarily mean a person has a learning disability. All students learn at different paces, and particularly among young people, it takes time and practice for formal math procedures to make practical sense.

If a person has trouble in any of the areas below, additional help may be beneficial.

• Good at speaking, reading, and writing, but slow to develop counting and math problem-solving skills
• Good memory for printed words, but difficulty reading numbers, or recalling numbers in sequence
• Good with general math concepts, but frustrated when specific computation and organisation skills need to be used
• Trouble with the concept of time-chronically late, difficulty remembering schedules, trouble with approximating how long something will take
• Poor sense of direction, easily disoriented and easily confused by changes in routine
  Poor long term memory of concepts-can do math functions one day, but is unable to repeat them the next day
• Poor mental math ability-trouble estimating grocery costs or counting days until vacation
• Difficulty playing strategy games like chess, bridge or role-playing video games
• Difficulty keeping score when playing board and card games.

How is dyscalculia identified?
When a teacher or trained professional evaluates a student for learning disabilities in math, the student is interviewed about a full range of math-related skills and behaviours. Pencil and paper math tests are often used, but a real evaluation needs to accomplish more.

An evaluation needs to reveal how a person understands and uses numbers and maths concepts, to solve advanced-level, as well as everyday, problems.

The evaluation compares a person's expected and actual levels of skill and understanding while noting the person's specific strengths and weaknesses. Below are some of the areas that may be addressed:

• Ability with basic math skills like counting, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing
• Ability to predict appropriate procedures based on understanding patterns - knowing when to add, subtract, multiply, divide or do more advanced computations
• Ability to organize objects in a logical way
• Ability to measure-telling time, using money
• Ability to estimate number quantities
• Ability to self-check work and find alternate ways to solve problems.

Treating dyscalculia
Helping a student identify his/her strengths and weaknesses is the first step to getting help. Following identification, parents, teachers and other educators can work together to establish strategies that will help the student learn math more effectively.

Help outside the classroom lets a student and tutor focus specifically on the difficulties that student is having, taking pressure off moving to new topics too quickly. Repeated reinforcement and specific practice of straightforward ideas can make understanding easier.

Other strategies for inside and outside the classroom include:

• Use graph paper for students who have difficulty organising ideas on paper.
• Work on finding different ways to approach mathematical facts; i.e., instead of just memorising the multiplication tables, explain that 8 x 2 = 16, so if 16 is doubled, 8 x 4 must = 32. Put them in a number triangle.
• Practice estimating as a way to begin solving math problems.
• Introduce new skills beginning with concrete examples and later moving to more abstract applications.
• For language difficulties, explain ideas and problems clearly. Encourage students to talk about their difficulties and ask questions as they work.
• Provide a place to work with few distractions and have pencils, erasers and other tools on hand as needed.
• Help students become aware of their strengths and weaknesses. Understanding how a person learns best is a big step in achieving academic success and confidence.