Schools have supported children who experience difficulties with mathematics, but dyscalculia has only recently been identified as a distinct condition for children and adults. It means that there are many adults and children who have never had their difficulties with mathematics formally identified. Furthermore, while there is currently a great deal of interest, little is known about the causes of dyscalculia. It is a complex phenomenon and may have several underlying causes.

Our work at Cambridge College in America with children and adults with learning problems in mathematics suggests that there seem to be several factors that may be implicated as the causes of mathematics learning problems:

• Cognitive factors.
  
  
• Inadequate and poor teaching-mismatch between the mathematics learning personality of a student and teaching style.
  
  
• Lack of prerequisite skills for mathematics learning.
  
  
• Delay in the development of mathematics language-vocabulary, syntax, and translation ability - from mathematics to English and English to mathematics.
  
  
• Inadequate mastery at levels of knowing: movement from intuitive to concrete, concrete to representational, representational to abstract, abstract to applications, and from applications to communication.

In all cases, it seems, the prerequisite skills for mathematics learning are affected. These prerequisite skills include: following sequential directions, spatial orientation/space organization, pattern recognition, visualization, estimation, inductive and deductive thinking. These prerequisite skills act as "anchors" for mathematics ideas. The degree to which these prerequisite skills are not developed or affected varies from learner to learner.

What is the incidence of dyscalculia?

Since people are just becoming aware of this condition, it is hard to quantify exactly how many people have dyscalculia. Although many people experience difficulty or disability in mathematics, recent studies show that approximately 4% of students show classical symptoms of dyscalculia. They may have normal abilities in other areas and appropriate or higher cognitive development. Each class may have one or two such students.

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