What is Mathematical Disabilities or Dyscalculia?

What is Mathematical Disabilities or Dyscalculia

Dyscalculia, or Mathematical Learning Disabilities, is a specific learning disability in which students struggle with numeracy despite average to high intelligence.

Parents start noticing signs of difficulties with numeracy when their children fall behind their peers in school, or develop anxiety and dislike for the subject. This lack of numeracy may affect their science and mathematics in secondary school.

The brain is capable of many changes for the better and it can be ‘trained’, especially during childhood. The emphasis is early intervention to prevent school failure and low self-esteem. Dyslexia programs have been successful in overcoming reading problems and it is the same with mathematics disabilities.

Give Cognitive Connections a call for a consultation at +65 93856531.

(Credit to Dr. Anna J. Wilson of the University of Canterbury, New Zealand who researches Dyscalculia)

How does all this play out in the Singapore School System?

The Singapore school syllabus covers an immense amount of mathematics concepts in a short space of time. The effect is a lack of time to lay the foundations on which mathematical skills are built. For example, many of my students up to Primary 4 do not know the values of quantities, which in turn, is confusing when they work in columns for the four operations.

Math is interesting only if it is made meaningful in daily life….

There is little in-school time to put into meaningful practice, interesting concepts like area and perimeter. Hence learning holds no relevance to students if the main aim of learning is to pass exams. Many of those who pass have an excellent memory for procedural work. They memorize everything the teacher wrote on the board and reproduce the sequence every time they come across a similar question. There is very little creative or cognitive problem-solving skill involved. For most students, this is fine, but more intelligent children need to understand what they are doing before they carry out any mathematical operation. There are also those who like to think through the process sequentially and understand the work before they can replicate it. As the school year progresses and more topics are added and the memory bank becomes saturated. Those who have been copying without understanding get very muddled and make careless mistakes or omit steps.

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