Dyscalculia refers to children’s difficulties in dealing with numbers, number ranges, and basic arithmetic operations.
The cause still remains largely unknown because research has not been dealing with this problem for very long. However, it is assumed that it has similar causes as dyslexia.
If persistent difficulties with arithmetic occur over an extended period – half a year or longer – it can be assumed that this is dyscalculia or arithmetic weakness. However, in the rarest cases, arithmetic problems have anything to do with lack of intelligence!
Dr. Astrid Kopp-Duller and Dr. Livia R. Pailer-Duller
What can cause arithmetic problems?
Arithmetic problems should not be viewed as personality traits of the affected children, because learning arithmetic also occurs as an interactive process between student, teacher, and parents. Often, arithmetic problems could be avoided altogether if the conditions were more favorable. Whether school-didactic circumstances, organic or neurological causes, or psychological, social, or emotional factors, or even an interaction leads to arithmetic problems, it is clear that after an accurate assessment, individual training at the pedagogical-didactic level, if necessary supported by other specialists, must take place.
Fundamentally, the field of dyscalculia and arithmetic weakness should always be viewed in connection with dyslexia or reading and spelling difficulty (RSD), because in many cases the causes are the same or similar. Only the symptoms or problems are perceived either in the arithmetic area in connection with numbers or arithmetic operations, or in the writing/reading area in connection with letters.
According to the Department of Psychology at the University of Bielefeld, approximately 10-15% of all students are affected by arithmetic problems. People are sometimes affected by both dyscalculia/arithmetic
deficiency and dyslexia/RSD, but both dyscalculia/arithmetic
deficiency and dyslexia/RSD also occur in isolation.
Is there a suspicion of dyscalculia / arithmetic deficiency?
t is very advantageous when specialists who work with people having writing, reading, or arithmetic problems at the pedagogical-didactic level bring sufficient knowledge regarding all areas, so that support can be individually tailored to the respective problems and thus be designed successfully. If additional secondary problems of psychological or physical causation (secondary dyscalculia) appear or arithmetic problems have been caused by these (acquired arithmetic deficiency), various specialists must of course be consulted. Nevertheless, the comprehensive support at the pedagogical-didactic level and the coordination of the different assistance remain the responsibility of the dyslexia and dyscalculia trainer. It is advantageous for parents and teachers to be able to rely on specialists, because “tutoring in mathematics” is mostly not sufficient for children who have difficulties with arithmetic in elementary school. Teachers are usually overwhelmed with children with massive arithmetic problems, as their training is mainly focused on the methodology and didactics for normal students.
It is certain that the problem of difficulty in learning arithmetic has various causes and therefore the support of affected individuals must also be different. In fact, however, the terms dyscalculia and arithmetic deficiency are mostly used synonymously by authors in literature, which often contributes to confusion and leads to incorrect interventions. It is also established that arithmetic represents a high performance of the human brain, which does not originate in a known, circumscribed cerebral cortex area like language, but is based on a complicated interplay of both hemispheres. Arithmetic is therefore an integrative collaboration of both hemispheres, while speaking, reading, and writing are primarily a function of the left hemisphere.
Difference Between Dyscalculia / Arithmetic Deficiency
In order to speak of a genetically determined problem of dyscalculia, abnormalities must be evident in all of the following areas:
- temporary inattention while calculating
- one or more different sensory perceptions
- perception errors during calculation. With the acquired problem of arithmetic deficiency, however, one observes only errors in calculation, without the attention or sensory perceptions being differently developed.
This results in the necessary and differently pronounced intervention steps:
Dyscalculia:
- Improvement of attention awareness during calculation
- Improvement of sensory perceptions
- Practice on the symptom (development of number symbols, building concepts of quantities and numbers, improvement of calculation performance, etc.).
Arithmetic Deficiency:
merely practicing on the symptom taking into account the concrete causes and inclusion of health professions.
Signs of Dyscalculia (Possible strengths and weaknesses of people with dyscalculia):
- Different perception
- High comprehension ability
- Different information processing
- High creativity and imagination
- Different learning ability
- Multiple thoughts simultaneously
- Thoughts racing ahead
- Comprehensive technical understanding
- Comprehensive perspectives
- Visual memory
- Own order
- Sensitive nature
- Attention fluctuations
- Temporary inattention in connection with symbols (letters and numbers)
- Intuitive rejection of symbolism
- Difficulties in learning to tell time.
Case Study
As with all general learning difficulties, dyscalculia/arithmetic weakness often creates a fateful cycle that can lead to the development, maintenance, and worsening of the problem, as this example shows:
When Stefanie started school, she was initially very enthusiastic. Gradually, however, she became increasingly aware that the other children were always faster and better at arithmetic than she was and were rewarded by the teacher for their results. Stefanie suffered increasingly from this, as these rewards were not given to her. Parents and teachers registered her problems but thought she was merely lazy or unfocused. To support her, they practiced more with her, which, however, remained unsuccessful and caused dissatisfaction on the part of parents and teachers. Her classmates also soon noticed that she was always wrong with her answers and began to laugh at her. Added to this was the fact that her sister, who had no problems at school, was always presented as her good role model. All of this had profound negative effects on her self-esteem.
To somehow save her self-esteem, Stefanie soon pretended to have no interest in arithmetic at all, which, however, only increased the pressure on her. She perceived the remedial teaching as punishment. Through reduced effort and thus continued lack of recognition, her self-esteem continued to be undermined. She compensated for this through successes in another area – in sports. In addition, she received attention through classroom disruptions – albeit only negative attention. This vicious cycle escalated further and soon the problem spread to the entire teaching.
Stefanie increasingly failed in performance situations. She became afraid of them, which in turn led to stress, learning blocks, and thus to a further reduction in her performance capabilities. She found written work increasingly unpleasant and therefore tried to avoid it wherever possible: Homework was accompanied by an exhausting daily battle with her mother, notebooks were forgotten or lost, and tasks were concealed from her mother. The increasing failures led to feelings of guilt in Stefanie, and she soon stopped noticing good performances altogether. This was further reinforced by the fact that parents and teachers reacted with mistrust rather than praise, even for good performances. A change thus became almost impossible. (Cf. Information on Dyscalculia, University of Bielefeld, Department of Psychology)
“A child with dyslexia needs more time, motivation, and praise than other children, but is just as capable of learning the cultural technique of reading, writing, and arithmetic with the help of pedagogical training by a certified dyslexia trainer or dyscalculia trainer!”
Dr. Astrid Kopp-Duller (Book: The Dyslexic Person)
Is there research on dyscalculia / arithmetic Deficiency?
The fact is that dyslexia/reading and writing difficulties have been researched significantly more, however, from the scientific perspective, much less attention has been paid to the problem of difficulties in learning arithmetic until now. Also, internationally, no agreement on uniform terminology has been reached to date. Unfortunately, the assumption is widely but mistakenly spread that the cause of dyscalculia lies exclusively in a lack of intelligence, talent, or in factors such as the school environment, the learning material, or the parents. However, this assumption is by no means true. Rather, arithmetic problems for each affected person are caused by various influencing factors, whereby dyscalculia is based on genetic causation, which manifests itself in differently pronounced sensory perceptions, while arithmetic weakness is caused by psychological or physical causes. Therefore, there is no simple model for the development of arithmetic problems.