Dyscalculia: let us explain this "number dyslexia"

Dyscalculia. A learning difference that is under-researched, under-diagnosed and not well understood by many people...doesn’t sound very helpful, does it?  We want to help change that! 

We were fortunate to have Becky Ginger as an expert on our SYT Learn live call titled “Dyscalculia and Your Child” where she not only shared resources she has created related to math and dyscalculia, but she had personal experiences to share as someone who has dyslexia and dyscalculia, and who has children with a mix of these learning differences as well. 

Becky likes to explain dyscalculia as “number dyslexia” since dyslexia is often a better-understood learning difference. Children with dyscalculia are intelligent...their IQ is not any different from the “neuro-typical” child. However, what you might see someone with dyscalculia struggle with includes: 

  • Mental arithmetic

  • Counting

  • Multiplication/Division

  • Number sense

  • Telling time

  • Families to 10 (i.e 6 and 4 make 10, 3 and 7 make 10) 

  • Map reading

  • Working with money

  • Math reasoning/Word problems

  • Learning to drive

Becky shared that she has found that if you look back, there were likely markers for a child who has been diagnosed. There are checklists out there to help with understanding if you feel your child may be struggling with some of the common dyscalculia signs, and of course, you can get screened/tested.

Becky used a great analogy to help people understand learning differences like dyscalculia better: Make your hands into fists and connect them together at the knuckles. One of your hands represents the right brain and the other one the left brain. The part where your knuckles meet the other hand is the neural pathways. With people who have certain learning differences, there are roadblocks in these pathways and they have to find a different pathway to transmit information. Using this type of explanation to understand their brains, helps kids to visualize what their brain is doing. Kids with learning differences need to use a lot of creativity, imagination and problem solving and therefore have a lot of information flowing through these pathways. 

Becky’s view is that she does not really care about labels, she just wants solutions to help people progress. 

Becky shared some personal stories from her own life, including that as a child she couldn’t do mental arithmetic, but could do more complex math. She never really believed in herself and went into her career life thinking she was stupid and lacking confidence that stemmed from her school days. She did not believe that she was as smart as her colleagues, which she felt led to her not feeling like she could ask for pay raises etc. despite being very successful at what she did.

When Becky had her own children and saw them struggling and feeling demoralized by their own learning journey, she wanted to be able to sort it out. Her kids were in tears when doing things such as learning their times-tables, which are taught in rote. So she invented a way to teach people using stories and in ways that make people laugh. Insert Table Fables, an online game-and-stories-based website designed to help kids have fun while learning their multiplication. 

Becky shared a lot of great insights, are here are a few key takeaways:

  • Dyscalculia is similar to dyslexia, but with numbers

  • Kids learn better when they are not stressed. Stress blocks them from taking in information and we need to try to take that stress component away from learning wherever possible

  • Make learning fun - try to use stories, games, rewards etc. to improve the learning environment. Becky suggested one of her favourite tools for math games is a deck of cards - the possibilities are endless with the number of games you can play with them!

  • All the research points to the huge benefit of figuring out early if there is a math learning difference. Sorting it out early rather than later makes a huge difference in acquiring those important ground-level skills

  • Confidence is the key. Confidence is a game-changer to the learning process

  • Kids need to focus on foundational skills first. Kids need to sort the basics out before trying to learn more complex math

  • Becky encourages rewards, to have something to work towards when practicing

  • Fluency and being fast in math is incredibly important

  • Dyscalculia is a relatively new area of research, however, if you know what to look for, it can be easy to spot in your child

  • Even if you get diagnosed with dyscalculia, it is hard to find support and resources out there that help (keep reading for some of Becky’s resource suggestions!) 

Becky’s advice for kids with a learning difference? Don’t think of your learning difference as a curse, instead of learning differently is like having a superpower if you know how to use it. We need to help kids understand that they are incredibly bright in other ways, and have the benefit of thinking about things in a completely different way than others.  Watch the replay of this call here and learn about more resources you can access.