Dyscalculia - or just Dyslexia?

Your dyslexic child is struggling with math/s and you are worried. But are your child's difficulties due to dyscalculia or just to their dyslexia?

Dyscalculia is a separate condition which some children suffer from, and a child can suffer from both dyslexia and dyscalculia.

The UK definition of dyscalculia is:

"...a condition that affects the ability to acquire arithmetical skills. Dyscalculic learners may have difficulty understanding simple number concepts, lack an intuitive grasp of numbers, and have problems learning number facts and procedures. Even if they produce a correct answer or use a correct method, they may do so mechanically and without confidence" (Department for Education and Science).

Math/s difficulties caused by dyslexia alone

If you are already familiar with the symptoms of dyslexia, you will be aware that a dyslexic child might well have problems with sequencing, telling left from right, and with short-term memory:

1 - Mixing up similar -looking numbers in reading and writing. e.g. 6 and 9.
2 - Problems comprehending the space between numbers. e.g.

7   12 which is 712.

3 - Confusing the direction of numbers and reading them backwards, e.g.12 becomes 21.
4 - Problems copying numbers and calculations  from the board.
5 - Problems reading tables or diagrams.
6 - Problems with counting backwards.
7- Problems with multiplication tables.
8- Being slower than other children to learn to tell the time.
9- Difficulties related to short term memory:

    *** Problems recalling numbers and calculations from memory.
    *** Difficulties doing tasks containing more than one step.
    *** Difficulties keeping score during games.
    *** Problems with mental calculations.

Math/s difficulties caused by dyscalculia

If a dyslexic child experiences these further difficulties, then s/he may also be suffering from dyscalculia:

1 - Difficulties reading or writing numbers containing more than one digit. Numbers with zeroes can be especially difficult (when the zeroes are silent),.e.g.1009 or 9070.
2 - Difficulties understanding mathematical symbols:

+            -          x

and how these symbols should be used,.e.g. when we ask the child to fill in with the correct sign here: 

9  ... 3 = 6

3 - Difficulty with the practical application of math/s. Shifting from a concrete level to abstract thinking,  e.g. The distance between your school and your house is 100m .How many meters are you walking every day to go to your school? One child couldn't transfer this concept to numbers as 100+100.
4 - Difficulties understanding the concept of weight, space, direction, and time (see below).
5 - Difficulties understanding the concepts of words we use in connection with numbers, such as as:

much    more    most

6 - Difficulties understanding the concept of amount, where the numbers are used in conjunction with units. Also how to find the relation between these units. For example,how to change meters to kilometers.

More about time: Reading the time, then telling the time are different from each other. First, how to read the time? We should read the angle and direction of the hands.(analog clock). It is easier to read a digital clock by reading the numbers in one sequence from left to right. The clock doesn't actually show us if it is in the morning or in the afternoon.

Also, it is not a matter of just a dyscalculia. It depends on our visual perception,  working memory, understanding of the language, and our comprehension of time. It isn't only a matter of telling the time, but it is a problem of estimating how long an hour or 24 hours is? So planning ability is affected - understanding the time sequence of a course of events.

Checking through these two lists may help you to see if your child is having trouble with math/s because of their dyslexia, or whether their problems are due to their having a further overlapping condition: dyscalculia.