What is Dyscalculia?

Dyscalculia is a childhood disorder that affects the ability to learn arithmetic and mathematics
in someone of normal intelligence, as compared with those of the same age who are receiving
identical instruction. It is not a mental health disorder, but rather a nonverbal learning
disability that causes difficulty with counting, measuring quantity, working memory for
numbers, sequential memory, ability to recognize patterns, time perception, telling time, sense
of direction, and mental retrieval of mathematical facts and procedures. To someone with
dyscalculia, learning and performing math is like trying to understand a foreign language.
Dyscalculia may also be referred to as math learning disability, developmental dyscalculia,
math anxiety, math dyslexia, or numerical impairment.

Symptoms

A child with dyscalculia has difficulty adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing numbers, is
slow at performing mental math, and is likely to have trouble with money-related tasks. It is
difficult for a child with dyscalculia to understand and remember basic mathematical facts and
formulas. The child’s math ability is often inconsistent; they may be able to perform
calculations one day but then forget how to do so on a test the following day. Overall, a child
with dyscalculia may appear absent-minded, with a tendency to get lost, lose things, lose track
of time, or easily become disoriented. It can also be difficult for a child with dyscalculia to
remember names or to associate faces with names.

Causes

Researchers do not know for sure what causes dyscalculia, but continue to try to work out the
differences between those whose problems with math stem from deficits in brain processing
and those whose problems are related to factors such as poor instruction, poverty, or
coexisting conditions.

Research has also found that, for people with math anxiety, the anticipation of having to do
math activates the same centers in the brain that register visceral threats and physical pain.
Since this was not observed during the actual performance of math problems, researchers
suspect the mere anticipation of math is more anxiety-provoking than the math itself and can
cause those affected to try to avoid math problems altogether.