Math dyslexia? What is dyscalculia?
It’s common for children to have some sort of difficulty learning math.
Even if that wasn’t the case for me, most of my classmates when I was in school hated that subject, "it was too hard", I used to think they were just too lazy to study, that with practice they could easily solve the math problems; but what if for some people it’s almost impossible to learn math?
My niece was just six years old when her parents took her to a educational psychologist and was diagnosed with Dyscalculia. Her mother had spent hours with her every day trying to get her to learn basic math in vain, it was hard to watch the kid struggle so much with “5x2=10”. Until the psychologist explained everything, none of us could understand why math was so hard when she was great at reading and almost every other subject.
What is Dyscalculia?
On the other hand, acalculia is a term used to refer to dyscalculia caused by some type of brain injury.
Symptoms:
- Has a poor sense of number and estimation.
- Difficulty when counting backwards.
- Difficulty stating which of two numbers is larger.
- Inconsistent results in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. However, they usually can do additions (as is my niece’s case), the rest of the operations are poorly executed.
- Difficulty reading analog clocks.
- Poor memory of math concepts. They may be able to perform math operations one day but not the next. They also have no sense of whether their answers are right or not
- Despite studying math for many hours may not remember most of what they just learned.
- Math causes them anxiety (my niece would even cry because her math’s homework stressed her so much and despite her parents helping her, she couldn’t understand anything).
What causes dyscalculia?
- Genes: Like other learning disabilities, dyscalculia has a significant familial aggregation, suggesting a role for genetics in the evolution of this disorder. In other words, it tends to run in the family.
- Alcohol abuse in pregnant women: Alcohol is considered to be a teratogen (a medical term used to refer to any agent that can disturb the development of the embryo or fetus), so alcohol abuse in pregnant women is linked to dyscalculia. Prematurity and low birth weight may also play a role in this developmental disorder.
- Brain development: A recent brain imaging study in people with dyscalculia showed less brain activity in parietal and frontal areas of the brain associated with mathematical cognition.
Dyscalculia often co-occurs with other learning difficulties such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and specific language impairment (SLI). This is probably because both environmental and genetic factors which affect brain development are likely to act on several areas of the brain at once.
How is dyscalculia diagnosed?
Usually with a medical exam or visiting an educational professional.What can I do if my child suffers from dyscalculia?
There are no medications for dyscalculia. And there aren’t specialized teaching programs like there are for dyslexia. But kids with dyscalculia may benefit from multisensory instruction in math. This approach uses all of a child’s senses to help her learn skills and understand concepts. [Source of Image]
Basically try to help your child by making math as easy as possible, perhaps with the help of a tutor or a professional in the area. A psychologist is a great too, it helps the kid deal with the anxiety this disorder causes.
Other sources:
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Excellent
I heard about this some years ago, and believe I've always had this. I tested at a high enough IQ to be put into "gifted" classes in elementary school, but that was NOT based on my math scores on that test, which were atrocious. Because they put me in advanced classes, this included math I simply couldn't do. I eventually had to go back down to "regular" math classes (in which I still had a hard time), while being in advanced classes for other subjects. I had to take College Algebra four times in college, and only passed the fourth time by virtue of a VERY generous professor, and it wasn't for lack of trying....I had three people tutoring me in it at one time. I simply didn't understand it. That's why my college major, and my major in grad school, had nothing to do with math. My parents talk about how I would get so frustrated with math in elementary school that they would ask me "What's one plus one?" and I'd cry, "I don't know!" The entrance test to graduate school included a verbal part, a written part, and a math part, and I kicked ass on the verbal and written, but I scored so low on the math part, I only just squeaked by on getting a high enough score to go to grad school. Math has just never been something I could fully grasp, sometimes even with a calculator.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure this article applies to me.
Thank you very much for your comment, I found it very interesting!
Sometimes parents stress out their kids quite a lot, perhaps because they think it's their fault if the child can't do well in school. It's infuriating that dyscalculia is not as well known as dyslexia, so parents usually don't realize what's wrong. I remember my niece's parents yelling at her for not knowing the answers, that's just not healthy for the child's mental health.
I made this article to spread the word about it and I'm glad you liked it and that you could go through such a harsh experiencie.
Math still stresses me out to this day. I never became good with it, though once I graduated college and grad school and was out on my own, I learned to use it a little bit better for the everyday things where you require it. I still think only people who plan to become scientists should take Algebra, as no one else is going to get any real world use out of it....it should be a math elective in school, not a requirement.
Thank you for teaching me about this issue <3