Definition
Dyscalculia is a developmental or neurological disability affecting one’s ability to understand, remember, or manipulate numbers or number facts and/or an inability to conceptualize numbers as abstract concepts of comparative quantities (“number sense”),
Red Flags for a Mathematical Disorder
- Problems with regrouping and not understanding the concept of borrowing (What! Borrow from a zero?)
- Struggling with word problems and are adding numbers when they are supposed to be subtracting.
- Difficulty with sequencing everyday lists like the months of the year or days of the week.
- Difficulty telling time using an analogue clock or understanding that the concept of “15 minutes” means a quarter of an hour.
- Challenges with keeping numbers lined up and there is little order to their work.
- Difficulty visualizing problems (mental math or geometry)
- Errors that are ‘way off’ (e.g. 17 X 3 = 510)
- Trouble using a number line or calculating elapsed time
- Incomplete mastery of basic facts
- Anxiety and avoidance of mathematics
Support Services: What do you do?
Even before Algebra, children should be checked to see if they are developmentally on track with telling time, working with money, and of course understanding what is being asked for in a word problem. It is important for your child to realize that multiplication, division; ratios, decimals, and fractions are all in the same family and can express the same thing. For adolescents and adults, mathematics disorders can become severe impediments to college entry or career success. Underachievement in mathematics should not be overlooked. Contact us today to schedule a consultation at our Northern Virginia office.
MindWell recommends testing to determine what might be causing their mathematical challenges to help create a remediation plan.
Did You Know?
Those with dyscalculia often have problems with differentiating between left and right and mental visualization.