Many people may experience difficulty with maths. However, when these difficulties persist despite effective learning and teaching and supportive interventions, there may a specific learning difficulty.
In April 2022 the Scottish Government and Education Scotland launched the following agreed national working definition for Dyscalculia.
Dyscalculia can be described as a specific difficulty in understanding number and number processes which persists despite the provision of appropriate learning opportunities. It is distinguishable from other challenges associated with numeracy and mathematics due to the:
- Persistent inability to understand and or retrieve numerical facts from memory
- Severity of difficulties with number sense.
Associated difficulties can include:
- Subitising – immediately recognising quantity without counting
- Estimating
- How numbers and amounts relate to each other in their representation
- Recognising and understanding number symbols
- Learning and recalling basic maths facts and processes
- Ordering, sequencing and directionality
- Applying number skills to solve problems
- Everyday tasks involving number e.g. money, time
- Short-term and working memory.
Dyscalculia exists in all cultures and across the range of abilities and socio-economic backgrounds. Learners with dyscalculia can continue to make progress in mathematics but may do so at a different pace.
Dyscalculia is likely to be a genetic, life-long, neurodevelopmental difference. Unidentified, it could result in mathematics anxiety, low self-esteem, high stress, atypical behaviour and low achievement. This can have associated impacts on opportunities in adult life.”
Scottish Government ( 2022)
Dyscalculia identification and support
“Receiving appropriate additional support is not dependent upon the formal identification of a specific need or label such as dyscalculia. However, identification of dyscalculia and the understanding of what it means can be extremely important to the learner’s wellbeing and their family and this should not be underestimated”. (Education Scotland 2022)
In East Ayrshire, the skills necessary to identify a learner with dyscalculia, should be embedded within the school, with support if required from EAST and Psychological Services.
There is no one test for dyscalculia carried out by a “specialist”, rather, assessment is a collaborative process involving those who know the learner best. It should take place over time involving careful evaluation of a learner’s response to teaching and targeted intervention. The information gathered during the collaborative identification process is valued and forms part of the ongoing monitoring of the child or young person’s progress and support within Curriculum for Excellence.
For further information see our Dyscalculia leaflet for teachers here and our Dyscalculia leaflet for parents/carers here, as well as tips for supporting learners with dyscalculia which can be found here.
