We use mathematics daily, since it is fundamental for daily economy (going to the supermarket, paying or giving change correctly…), interpreting time (calendar, schedule…), orienting ourselves in space (remembering addresses, house number door…), they are even necessary to cook according to the quantities indicated in a recipe, in addition to many other daily situations. Thus, dyscalculia affects the daily lives of people who suffer from it and, therefore, it is very important to treat it.
It is important to differentiate between people who find mathematics difficult and people who suffer from dyscalculia, especially taking into account that the subject of mathematics usually has a large number of failures in relation to other subjects. If you want to know more about dyscalculia, continue reading this Psychology-Online article: What is dyscalculia: symptoms, causes and treatment.
Symptoms of dyscalculia
What is dyscalculia? Dyscalculia is a developmental disorder characterized by a alteration in calculation capacity (and in general handling numbers) that affects learning. The prevalence of dyscalculia is between 3-6% within the school population, therefore, it is quite common.
The symptoms of dyscalculia refer to skills that require good temporal and spatial coordination, which are closely related to acquisition and handling of mathematical operations. There are several symptoms of dyscalculia:
- Difficulties recognizing the meaning of numbers.
- Difficulties grouping objects in certain quantities.
- Difficulties in recognizing and comparing groups using size concepts.
- Difficulties in learning to count, recognize and match numbers with certain quantities.
- Increase in the child’s errors as school learning progresses.
- Difficulties solving basic mathematical problems, involving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
- Difficulty performing the calculation of different mathematical operations.
- Difficulties remembering multiplication tables, units of measurement, among others.
- Rotation, inversion of numbers.
- Difficulty writing numbers.
- Difficulties in interpreting quantities.
- Difficulty in understanding arithmetic and, consequently, difficulties in operations that require this understanding.
- They do not write numbers correctly.
- Difficulties when making numerical series.
These are the symptoms that allow.
Types of dyscalculia
We can distinguish three different types of dyscalculia that we explain below:
- Dyscalculia anarrhythmia: This type of dyscalculia is characterized by the presence of difficulties in adding, subtracting and multiplying.
- Attentional-sequential dyscalculia: It is characterized by presenting difficulties in learning and memorizing multiplication tables.
- Spatial dyscalculia: People who suffer from this type of dyscalculia show difficulties in handling arithmetic problems that have multiple columns.
Causes of dyscalculia
The origin of dyscalculia is considered multifactorial, therefore, there are different factors that could cause dyscalculia:
- biological causes determined by the person’s genetic inheritance as neurological malformations. These malformations manifest themselves in the person in the form of difficulties in performing mathematical operations, classifying numbers and placing them in sequences.
- Brain damage in case of acquired dyscalculia. Acquired dyscalculia is due to a brain injury, that is, it can be suffered by people after a brain injury and who before that injury did not present any or almost none of the symptoms of dyscalculia. Suffering a brain injury does not mean suffering from acquired dyscalculia, but rather it occurs when the injury affects a certain area of the brain. Although it also occurs in people who are in the natural process of learning mathematics, in this case, it would be evolutionary dyscalculia.
- Environmental causessuch as the type of education and stimulation.
Dyscalculia treatment
Dyscalculia is a non-curable disorder, but it is treatable. On the other hand, when it comes to difficulties considered normal with mathematics, there is a solution to solve the problem.
It is interesting to try to prevent this disorder from the childhood stages, therefore, it would be advisable to build a solid foundation in the acquisition and development of learning calculus through . It is important to correct the errors that students make in terms of mathematical vocabulary in order to consolidate an adequate vocabulary that allows them to build subsequent mathematical knowledge.
Since daily life is affected by dyscalculia, it is important work on everything that is affected during people’s daily lives. In this case it would be about memorizing the days of the week, the months of the year, the seasons, the multiplication tables, the address of your home and those of family and friends, among others.
For the treatment to be effective, it is recommended to guide patients in numerical learning during primary education, since this is the stage in which the treatment is most effective. Patients should be introduced to exercises to work on the number system, large digit numbers, calculation strategies, among others. To work on each of these aspects, there are different recreational activities, with the intention of making the treatment more pleasant, such as, for example, throwing dice at random in order to decipher the number of points they have and write down the number in mathematical vocabulary. (four dots are visible on the die, so the patient must write the number 4).
It is also necessary to take into account possible consequences. For example, suffering from a learning disorder can affect a child’s self-esteem. Here we propose.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to What is dyscalculia: symptoms, causes and treatmentwe recommend that you enter our category.
Bibliography
- Andreu, L., Serra, JM, Soler, O., and Tolchinsky, L. (2013). Writing and mathematics learning disorders. Open University of Catalonia.
- Artigas, J. (2002). Problems associated with dyslexia. Neurological Journal, 34, 7-13
- Calderán, IM, and Zamorano, F. (1998). Difficulties in the acquisition of reading-writing and other learning.