Arithmetic problems associated with dyscalculia
People with dyscalculia often don't see numbers at the right place, their brains rearrange the numbers. Furthermore, memory problems may be an issue. During arithmetic assignments they lose information from their short-term memories.
The basic skills of adding, subtracting, multiplication and division cannot be automatized, manifesting itself as common symptoms of dyscalculia. Other pupils are able to store this information in their long-term memories and need to take no effort to interpret the symbols every time they see an assignment. Children with dyscalculia may have just as much difficulty with solving the same sum they did a week ago, simply because it was not recorded in their long-term memories.
Additionally, the working method or strategy used by the child may be confusing. The instruction is oftentimes insufficient and needs to be extended. They could just try to do sums without knowing what exactly they are doing, or fail to start working at all. Unfortunately, teachers cannot always provide extra explanations.
When the pupil's problems appear persistent and unchanged after six months of quality support and intensive practice, there's talk of characterics associated with dyscalculia.
There are children that show a certain intelligence profile. Their practical intelligence is developed significantly slower than their linguistic intelligence. Usually, this is classified as a non-verbal language disorder (NLD).
Bases for diagnoses of dyscalculia
A pupil may posses weak intellectual capabilities, that manifest themselves in all educational areas. Another possibility is reading problems, which makes text-based sums harder. The last option is the provided arithmetic method or sometimes the teaching itself, making the problem education-based.If none of the above applies, then the way the pupil acquires the following basic skills should be examined.
- Does the pupil recognize the symbols of numbers?
- Do they link seeing a number to it's corresponding value and the other way around?
- Do they understand the meaning of symbols like -, + and =?