In September, the BBC and many newspapers ran a story about dyscalculia.
This really surprised me, though I knew about the study and its authors, because dyscalculia is a distressingly neglected but serious handicap.
Listening to dyscalculic learners
Dyscalculia is not just being bad at maths, in the same way that dyslexia is not just being bad at reading. Nor is it caused by a ‘negative attitude’ to maths, though it is certainly true that dyscalculics do have a negative attitude. In 2002, when we began our first study of dyscalculia, we wanted to find out what 9-year-old dyscalculic learners felt about the daily numeracy hour. To do this, Anna Bevan used five learner focus groups to find out.
Here are some of the things the dyscalculic learners told us:
“I don’t forget it, I don’t even know what she’s saying.”
“Somebody says ‘Can you pass me – can you pass the rubber? Can you pass the pencil? Can you pass the pencil sharpener?’ and what are you supposed to do? I’m trying to work out and you lose track. You have to do it over and over again and by the time you’re finished you’ve just done the first question and the teacher says ‘why have you only done one question?'”
The point here is a failure of understanding. Of course, even for a 9-year-old, failing to understand what your classmates have no trouble grasping is distressing.
When asked, “How does it make people feel in a maths lesson when they lose track?” they said:
“Horrible.”
“You feel stupid.”
“I feel like screaming and saying ‘why are you doing this, why are you doing this?’ and I feel like punching the teachers!”
Other children in the class are well aware of those who fail to understand basic numerical concepts. They may tease them or get frustrated. But they also notice the emotional consequences:
“She’s like – she’s like all upset and miserable, and she don’t like being teased.”
“Yeah, and then she goes hide in the corner – nobody knows where she is and she’s crying there.”
Seeing the world in numbers
So why do these learners have so much difficulty learning arithmetic?
We now have a very good idea. Humans — even infants — and many animals see the world in terms of numbers. They see the number of people in a room, the fruits on a tree, or the predators nearby. This inherited capacity is like seeing in colour. There are specialised neural circuits for this. When that inheritance goes wrong in vision, people become colour-blind. In dyscalculia, they are “number-blind,” to put it crudely.
However, not all dyscalculics have inherited the condition. It can also be caused by prematurity, foetal alcohol syndrome, perinatal trauma, or genetic bad luck — anything that affects the brain’s number circuits.
Screening for dyscalculia
It’s easy to test for dyscalculia: measure how quickly someone can identify the number of objects in a display.
This is the basis of my Dyscalculia Screener, available from GL-Assessment since 2003. It helps distinguish between dyscalculic learners and those who are bad at maths for other reasons.
In a study conducted by Teresa Iuculano and me, 5-year-olds at the bottom of their numeracy classes were assessed. Those who weren’t dyscalculic responded better to the intervention than those who were, although the intervention wasn’t specifically designed for dyscalculics.
Intervention
This brings us to a crucial point: dyscalculics need specialised help, just like dyslexics. Unfortunately, this support is scarce.
- Dyscalculia is rarely acknowledged by the Department for Education.
- It is barely covered by National Numeracy.
- There’s no British Dyscalculia Association.
- Teachers, psychologists, parents, and learners themselves often haven’t even heard of it.
On the plus side, the British Dyslexia Association is beginning to take dyscalculia seriously.
Impact
Dyscalculia affects around 5% of the population, just like dyslexia, but has even more severe consequences.
A 2008 UK government report (Mental Capital and Wellbeing) concluded:
“Developmental dyscalculia is currently the poor relation of dyslexia, with a much lower public profile. But the consequences of dyscalculia are at least as severe as those for dyslexia.”
It found that:
- Dyslexia can reduce lifetime earnings by £81,000
- Dyscalculia can reduce lifetime earnings by £114,000
Dyslexia can reduce the chance of achieving five or more GCSEs (A*–C) by 3–12 percentage points, while dyscalculia can reduce it by 7–20 percentage points.
Reference:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-45477850