Math and numbers can confuse a lot of people, but for some school age children, the condition isn't just a sign of confusion, but a disability that can cause other problems. Dyscalculia is a condition that goes beyond forgetting a formula or transposing a number here and there, and can make school days seem longer and harder for children.
Definition
According to the National Center for Learning Disabilities, dyscalculia is the word used to refer to a wide-ranging set of life-long disabilities concerning math. There is not one set disability or problem with math skills to which the term refers. The term has Greek and Latin roots. The prefix is Greek for "badly" and the root calculia is Latin for "to count." Dyscalculia was first studied by a Czech psychologist named Ladislav Kosc.
Causes
Dyscalculia does not have one root cause. Early research on learning methods determined that if children aren't taught hands-on methods during the formative years starting at age one, they have a harder time grasping more intricate concepts. There may also be a physical component in brain geography concerning the right and left lobes and how they share information. This means a structural problem in how the brain functions.
Symptoms
The signs and symptoms of dyscalculia can present differently depending on the age and the child. Children may have a hard time comprehending the concept of place value and quantity, number lines and carrying and borrowing. Word problems in math may also cause problems for children with dyscalculia. Putting events and numbers in a sequence are also symptoms. Symptoms of dyscalculia can present in challenges with fractions, handling money and making change and a hard time seeing patterns in mathematical equations, as well. In some children, dyscalculia appears as trouble with time concepts like days, weeks, seasons and quarters.
Treatment
LDonline.org reaffirms that building self-confidence and helping children understand how they learn are important steps in treating dyscalculia. The first step is to identify the strengths and weaknesses for the child. The parent, teacher and child should work together to treat dyscalculia, as there needs to be work in and outside the classroom to make math easier. Each concept and the way to work through the problem should be reinforced repeatedly to help the child gain confidence and a pattern. Additional aspects of treatment involve graph paper to organize ideas, describing alternate ways of approaching facts like multiplication tables, using estimating as an entry way to solving problems, and using concrete examples when explaining a new skill before using abstracts.
Considerations
As children age, the way dyscalculia affects them can compound and present differently. If dyscalculia isn't caught in early childhood, as the child progresses through early elementary math classes, the visual and spatial effects of dyscalculia can make the condition appear worse, and potentially cause social issues if the child feels he isn't at the same level as his peers. It is also important to remember that children learn and process information differently and at different speeds, which are not necessarily indicators of a learning disability.
