Does my child have dyscalculia?

If you haven’t heard of dyscalculia, you may have heard of the term ‘number blindness’. Other people liken it to ‘dyslexia with numbers’.

Children with dyscalculia find it hard to learn maths techniques that are taught at school, like adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.

‘In general, they often have problems with understanding and remembering the basic concepts of arithmetic such as the basic number facts or recognising “how many”’, says Steve Chinn, a maths expert with many years' experience teaching children with learning difficulties and author of Dealing with Dyscalculia and The Fear of Maths: How to Overcome it (£10, Souvenir Press).

‘Often they remain heavily reliant on counting in ones, rather than recognising and using quantities greater than one.’

‘You can’t cure dyscalculia – whatever the underlying difficulties, they’ll probably remain – but you can make a difference to it,’ says Steve. There are lots of counting activities you can do around early numbers with your child if they’re struggling. ‘Encourage them to play around with numbers to improve their number sense, and see the numbers within numbers,’ he continues. ‘For example, recognising that four is one more than three, and is one less than five, and is two lots of two.’ Use things that they can touch, feel and see, as children with dyscalculia often find it easier to learn using concrete materials. Here are some more ideas:
 

• Estimation. Put two sets of items on a table, for example eight items next to three items, then four items next to three items. Ask ‘Which is the bigger number? Which pile has less?’ Teaching your child to appraise quantity and estimate is a valuable skill.
• Working with counters. Put four counters in a square shape then ask your child what they see. Cover up two counters, so they see it’s two lots of two. Next cover up three so they learn it’s three and one.
• Practise forwards and backwards. Children with dyscalculia can have problems counting back and forth, particularly when it comes to twos and threes.
• Break down prices. Shopping is a great chance to play around with numbers. If you see something that costs 69p, point out it’s 50p and 10p and 9 pennies. Or it’s 50p and 20p, and you’d get a penny back.

‘Official dyscalculia screening starts from seven’, says Steve. ‘That’s not to say that you might not have cause for concern any younger, but it’s very hard to diagnose before that age because of other normal developmental issues.’ Start off by asking a teacher if they’ve noticed your child have problems with numbers. Find out their ideas, and if they have any programmes for children making low progress in maths. They might not have much knowledge of dyscalculia or how best to teach a dyscalculic pupil, so it’s good to be able to suggest resources that can help, if necessary.

‘The organisation CatchUp has a good programme that schools can access. I also recommend the book The Dyscalculia Assessment by Jane Emerson and Patricia Babtie (£39.99, Continuum),’ says Steve. Steve Chinn has also produced a series of videos to help children and adults overcome maths difficulties, priced from £1.50 each; Maths Explained offers video lessons about all common maths concepts.