Education
Dyscalculia is the learning difference most likely to be written off as 'just not a maths person'. It isn't. Here's what to look for and what to do about it.
There is a phrase I heard constantly as a teacher that I have since learned to hear differently: 'I'm just not a maths person.' Students say it. Parents say it. Occasionally teachers say it, of students, as if it were a fixed characteristic rather than a description of a teaching and learning problem. And somewhere inside that phrase, for a significant number of children, is an unidentified learning difference called dyscalculia.
Dyscalculia is a specific learning difficulty that affects a person's ability to understand and work with numbers. Like dyslexia, it is neurological in origin. Like dyslexia, it exists on a spectrum. And like dyslexia thirty years ago, it is still widely underrecognised, in teacher training, in diagnostic practice, and in the support it receives in most classrooms.
What dyscalculia actually looks like
Dyscalculia is frequently confused with maths anxiety (which can be a consequence of dyscalculia but is a separate thing) and with low mathematical ability (which is not the same thing at all). The distinguishing features of dyscalculia are specific and observable.
- Persistent difficulty with number sense, understanding the relative size of numbers, or that 7 is closer to 8 than to 2, can remain effortful well beyond the age at which it typically becomes automatic
- Counting on fingers much later than peers, and continuing to rely on this strategy even when it has become socially conspicuous
- Difficulty memorising arithmetic facts, not because of lack of practice, but because rote retrieval of number facts is neurologically effortful
- Directional confusion, often reverses numbers (23 becomes 32), may confuse > and < symbols, can struggle with the concept of carrying and borrowing
- Difficulty understanding the magnitude of numbers, what a million looks like compared to a thousand, or what 0.4 and 0.04 have in common
- Word problem difficulty that is specific to the mathematical reasoning, not the reading
- Time and measurement confusion, difficulty reading analogue clocks, estimating duration, converting between units
“A student with dyscalculia is not failing to learn maths because they haven't tried. They are failing because the way maths is typically taught assumes a number sense that their brain doesn't automatically develop.”
The teaching approaches that help
Effective dyscalculia support follows similar principles to effective dyslexia support: explicit, sequential instruction that builds from concrete to representational to abstract, with more time and more varied practice than the curriculum typically provides.
- Concrete manipulatives first, always, before moving to written or abstract representation; this is not scaffolding for low ability, it is appropriate instruction for how number sense develops
- Visual models, number lines, base-ten blocks, fraction bars, that make the abstract spatial relationships of numbers visible and touchable
- Teach estimation and number sense explicitly, don't assume it develops; build in regular practice with approximate magnitude and comparison
- Allow calculator use for arithmetic as a support tool that frees up working memory for the mathematical reasoning the task is actually assessing
- Reduce the cognitive load of any single task, if you're assessing understanding of multiplication, don't also require written layout, number fact retrieval, and word problem interpretation simultaneously
- Break multi-step problems into visible steps, a physical checklist or a worked example on the desk, not an expectation of holding the steps in working memory
Adjustments that help in assessments
- Extended time, processing is slower, not less capable
- Calculator access for arithmetic fact retrieval, the assessment is mathematical reasoning, not arithmetic memorisation
- Graph paper or dotted paper to support spatial alignment of written calculations
- Reference cards for formulae, conversion factors, and number facts where the task is not assessing those facts specifically
- Oral response as an alternative where handwriting and numerical notation are creating a barrier
Formal identification
Dyscalculia is formally assessed by a neuropsychologist or educational psychologist. The assessment typically includes measures of number sense, arithmetic fact retrieval, working memory, and broader cognitive processing. If you suspect a student has dyscalculia rather than generalised mathematics difficulty, a referral for assessment is appropriate, and the distinction matters, because the most effective intervention approaches differ.
In the meantime: stop telling students, or allowing students to tell themselves, that they are 'not a maths person'. The brain is plastic, instruction matters, and the gap between 'I find this difficult' and 'I am incapable of this' is one that teachers create or close every day. Create it less. Close it more.
Education
A note on accuracy:While every effort has been made to ensure the information in this article is accurate at the time of writing, facts, policies and research can change. We're human, and sometimes we get things wrong. If you spot something that needs updating, we'd genuinely love to hear from you.
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Dave Harrison
ESW · Neurodiversity Advocate · Podcast Host
Dave Harrison is currently working in Australian schools as an Education Support Worker. He's the founder of THRVHUB, host of the Different Is Normal podcast, and a parent of a neurodivergent teenager, writing from both sides of the classroom.
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