Dyscalculia: More information
Tonight Dr Sarah Jarvis looked at dyscalculia, a maths learning disability. Watch the video below.
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Dyscalculia is often known as number blindness. It means that someone has difficulty understanding simple number concepts and problems learning number facts and procedures.
Dyscalculia is notoriously difficult to diagnose. It's recommended that you speak to a medical professional if you suspect someone you know may have dyscalculia.
Useful links about the symptoms and treatments:
- BBC Skillswise: What is dyscalculia?
- British Dyslexia Association: Dyscalculia
- Learning Disabilities Online: Dyscalculia
More information on dyslexia:
Did dyscalculia in your family go undiagnosed? Share your experiences here.
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Comments
I have a telephone number which is similar in every digit bar one to that of a Scottish firm of plumbers. The code for my number is 01234, that for the plumbers is 01324. I have lived at my address for over 16 years but you would be astounded at the number of times I receive calls from Scotland to do with burst pipes, central heating problems, delivery of plumbing materials and even job interviews! On my answerphone message I politely inform callers who might be trying to reach this Scottish plumbing firm that they have dialled the incorrect code and tell them the correct order of numbers they should have dialled. Nonetheless some callers still leave me an anxious or important message to do with plumbing problems! Is this a form of dyscalculia? No, I don't want to change my telephone number.
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I can't do maths, i got a E in it for my GCSE's last year. i put dycalculia to blame :D
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Dyscalculia - Dyslexia
Funny how these are seen as serious conditions (which of course they are), but no one seems to think it bad if people can't draw - that must be a condition too - dysdrawia?
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I thought the dyscalculia piece was good. All my kids are dyslexic, but fortunately they were good at maths. One major problem as they went through school was that their maths got worse because they could not read the questions. When we got the dyslexia diagnosed and helped , then their maths recovered. Both girls got As at A level.
I have often wondered whether there is a musical equivalent of dyslexia. I have never been able to sing in tune. It's not a hearing problem, I can tell that the notes are different, but I can't tell whether to go up or down. It feels like the same king of sequencing problem that happens in dyslexia and dyscalulia? Do the experts have any idea?
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While I am extremly pleased with your show bringing attetion to learning differculties, I must wonder why you did not cover the other learning differculty associated with dyslexia - dyspraxia. This also affects many people, so I hope you can cover this in the future please. Thanks for at least covering the other two.
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Thank you for showing the piece about this problem,i wish this information was avaliable when i was at school, i was just labelled as stupid and thick despite doing well in other lessons. To see this film has just confirmed what i have always tried to explain to others that i do have a problem im not just stupid. Thank you so much.
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I wish you would stop using the terms word blindness and number blindness. I have dyslexia and i do not have impaired vision, my brain simpley gets the order of numbers and letters muddled up amongst other things.
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As a child at school I was beaten by teachers because I was unable to cope with maths. I was told I was "thick & stupid", that I was "kept in the maths class because I made everyone laugh". I frequently copied my friends work to! Now at 57yrs old & a trained nurse i still struggle badly with numbers. I'm ok up to 12 but after that I've had it. I use my fingers, I draw imaginary dots in my head like the spots on a dice & add up that way. Long division is utterly impossible for me whilst subtraction is a no, no.
My children mock my poor number skills-I rely on my wife to work out our budget. It was impossible for me as a student nurse to work out a IVI drips per minute rate I checked, rechecked & checked with other staff.
I have developed over the yrs subtle coping stratagies to disguise my inability to work out maths.
Reflecting on my school days I feel I missed out on so much, my self esteem & confidence suffered not only because of my Dyscalculia but also because of the way I was bullied, verbally, mentally & at time physically by teachers. I have undergone psychotherapy in an attempt to explore my low self esteem & am able now to speak of myself.
I know that I am not stupid nor thick.
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My brother was diagnosed as having moderate to severe dyslexia when he was 6. It only took me complaining about it for another 15 years, (and one utterly pointless testing for dyslexia) for me to get diagnosed as having moderate dyspraxia with a degree of dyscalculia. In which time I had managed to scrape a C at GCSE maths (mainly because I had a great teacher, did well at the coursework section because I checked and rechecked it ad infinitum, and was at a public school and therefore streamed into the bottom group for maths), did my A levels (not including maths!) and had just finished a degree by the time I was actually diagnosed.
That intervening time I spent being told that I just 'wasn't trying hard enough', and that I 'could do better'. This is just the lazy teachers way of saying that they can't be bothered to find out if a child who could read 5 years ahead of her age group but couldn't learn even her times tables, no matter how many times she was made to repeat them, and had a brother with an already diagnosed learning disability might also have learning disability.
And I also agree with Gemini93, if you're covering Dyslexia and Dyscalculia, you should also cover Dyspraxia. It's not just movement that it affects.
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@ Wesley101 - Having dyscalculia or dyslexia is no laughing matter. Both disabilities have far more impact on life than not being able to draw well.
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From my earliest days I had problems with reading and writing which my mother managed to help me work on with much intensive help. Some aspects of the reading and writing remained but I got on ok as far as they were concerned at school as I'd learnt ways of coping. Some problems did still occur though. None of the schools I attended ever helped. I knew from the age of 7 or so that I had problems with mathematics and mathematical concepts, the school I had been at prior to that age always started out on english and when we'd finished that we moved on to maths. As I was still relatively slow at english I never really did much maths. When I moved to a different area and a new school I was way behind on maths and fought valiantly to catch up.
I did to a point but at middle school more problems with figures and maths concepts showed up. One particular one was learning my times tables, or rather not learning them. My mum made cards, bought me a book, had me go over them by rote but nothing worked, nothing really stayed in my head for more than a few minutes. It was a nightmare for both me and my mum. Again the school didn't pick anything up. Nor did my upper school pick anything up. At 16 I got a CSE grade 4, and after 2 years in the Sixth Form I managed to increase it to a CSE grade 3. Probably more luck than judgement. I must have been a nightmare for my tutor in those 2 years as I was really trying for my o level. I'd work things out but could never remember how I'd done it to be able to use the method for another problem.
I was bright enough on all other fronts, and did manage to leave school with reasonable O levels, including a B in Biology, and also a C in Human Biology despite never being able to attend a class as they clashed. I worked for a lot of years and was also a School Governor of a local Lower School for a few years. I dreaded going into the school on inspection visits as you'd spend time with a class. At the school the top age was 9yrs old and I used to dread them doing maths as I made my visit and having children ask me to help them knowing that I may not be able to help them. I used to see the charts on the wall showing what times tables the kids could do and always felt for the ones like me who could only do their 2's, 5's and 10's.
Then just a few years ago I went to my local college to try and get some Highers. Some dyslexia stuff was rearing it's ugly head again so the college sent me to a educational psychologist to be assessed. I found out I had some dyslexic traits but not enough for a full blown diagnosis, but I did get the full blown dyscalculia diagnosis. I knew nothing about dyscalculia so had to go away and research it and what I read was so me. I felt like a weight had been lifted. I got some good support there and one of the support tutors even ordered those colour bricks for me to help me make sense of the maths I needed for Higher Human Biology. I got extra time for exams and managed to get other Highers but I nver did manage to get Higher Human Biology despite it being a subject I've been interested in since school days.
Finally though I had a reason for not being able to do certain things, and the educational psychologist was able to identify me as a very visual person and help give me tactics for better studying.
I wonder what I would have been like had I been tested back in Lower or Middle School and got extra help.
My parents and brother still mock me, and many times over the years I've had to call my brother and get him to work though things over the phone if I've wanted to work out all the permutations of election results. If I ask my dad the explanations go way over my head. I used to wonder how they got me as my dad got his Higher Maths and worked as an accountant, my mum was good with figures and worked as a book keeper come wages clerk and my younger brother got his maths O level at 16. Now I'm ok with having dyscalculia, and I'm glad I know why I can't do certain things.
Thanks for covering this important and much forgotten condition. It always seems to be dyslexia that is mentioned when it comes to learning disabilities.
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I've never been good at maths - and a lot of other symptoms seem to apply to me - like the ability to learn language and I love writing stories and poetry.
I am 29 is it too late for a diagnosis?
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As a teacher of many years standing I have always had difficulty with math but have managed to hide the problem .Now no longer teaching I would love to be able to find out if I do in fact have dyscalcula.Is there a test available on line or by post which I could get acccess to?.I still have vivid memories of when I was 8 years old having my legs smacked at school because I could not complete a maths task at school and had brought my work back for the third time incorrect because I could not do it.I can understand the teachers frustration -I was an otherwise very bright child-ahead of my peers in reading,etc.What I can't understand though was my ability to do very complicated jigsaw puzzles,even from a very young age,though I have very poor spacial awareness and a complete inability to recall numbers-even my pin code I have to remember with a neumonic
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I'd still like someone to give me an answer to my telephone problem (post 1) but guess I'll have to accept after all these years there just isn't one apart from the fact that the brain "expects" numbers to be in sequence and can't cope when they're not even if the owner of the brain is staring at the correct numbers in writing! Oh well, I've got used to my Scottish callers so guess I'll just have to live with it and them.
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I work with people who have perceptual problems, dyslexia and dyscalculia amongst other conditions comes under this title. I carry out orthoscopic assessments which is the use of tinted lenses to help with conditions such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, Autistic Spectrum Disorders and Asperger's Syndrome, ADHD to name but a few. As mentioned in another post, it is not only blue and yellow that can help with these conditions, a whole spectrum of colour is available. The advantage of spectacles over coloured rulers or overlays is that they also help with writing, concentration, short term meory, balance and co ordination, copying from the board and flicker and glare from bright lights. There are a handful of practitioners across the country that have this latest technology, you can find more information on the following website:
www.orthoscopics.co.uk
Colour has been used for many years to help with dyslexia and visual stress but orthoscopics has a wider "colour space" to work with and a greater range of tints available.
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I watched with interest the programme on Dyscalculia and the distress the trainee teacher has coping with numbers on a daily basis, she is not alone.
I work with children and adults to help them overcome learning difficulties over approximately 6 months.
Whilst many approaches to learning difficulties provide ways of working around the problems, the Raviv Method develops new neural pathways in the brain that enable the natural learning of essential life skills. Consequently, improvement continues after the completion of the programme and benefits will often appear in other areas of life.
Please read the following testimonial from a Dyscalculic client:
My Experience - The Raviv Method
As a child I was classed as a "daydreamer" and "stupid". My teachers at the time didn't know that I had Dyscalculia. I couldn't see numbers at all and numbers appeared to me as Arabic writing. For the duration of Primary School my parents tried numerous ways to help me cope with the maths work that kept being sent home with me.
I would sit for hours making no progress. At the time, no one had heard of Dyscalculia and my parents didn't have a name to put to what hindered my progress through school.
I was eventually given help when I started High School. The help given was for Dyslexia, from which I also suffered slightly. I was given no help with the subject I desperately needed help with, Maths.
The year I left school, I failed my Maths exam and the little confidence I had, shattered.
I started college at fifteen and attended four years of Administration, feeling that my life was on a continuous downwards spiral. I learned little and gained almost nothing.
I left in my fourth year in 2006 at the age of nineteen, and passed my driving test the following June. I began working with my parents in the office of their business. I struggled to deal with the lack of confidence I had in myself and also in my ability with Maths. I had hit lower than rock bottom.
My Mum saw a flier for the Raviv Method in February 2008. I had a meeting with Karen and started the programme the following week.
I can say that the past six months have been the best in my life. I have changed more than I ever expected to and it has been a journey I have loved each second of.
The experience has changed my whole outlook on life.
My reading ability has dramatically improved - I was able to read six hundred pages in four days, something I had never been capable of achieving
My confidence is higher than anything I could possibly describe
I can see numbers and can understand how to use them
My driving and coordination have improved immensely
My breathing is stronger
I no longer dislike the left side of my body and found that I am ambidextrous
I am able to remember things clearly - pictures, writing and conversations
I enjoyed doing my Eight-Path Walk each morning as it set me up for the day and helped me relax into my routine. It helped me put into place everything I had floating around in my mind. It is amazing how something so simple can make such a drastic improvement to a life that was believed to never be able to change or amount to anything.
I am now twenty-one, and I am starting to see and feel things for the first time in my life. I have been brought to the fore-ground of my own life to experience everything for myself, instead of hiding in the background, afraid that I will fail because of the past experiences I have had, which I have laid to rest in the past and am now looking forward to living my life brightly and as loudly as I can thanks to Karen and the Raviv Method.
(Testimonial by Melanie age 21, August 2008)
Further details can be found at www.ravivscotland.co.uk
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I would like to ask you to cover dyspraxia as my daughter has it quite severely and it has affected every part of her life - it is not recognised widely but it really is a severe handicap it often goes together with dyslexia but in her case the dyslexia is mild. If you were to do some investigations I'm sure you would be surprised at just how badly it can affect peoples lives
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