It Just Doesn't Add Up: Explaining Dyscalculia and Overcoming Number Problems for Children and Adults
192
It Just Doesn't Add Up: Explaining Dyscalculia and Overcoming Number Problems for Children and Adults
192eBook
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781911093015 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Tarquin Group |
| Publication date: | 09/01/2019 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 192 |
| File size: | 15 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
What is dyscalculia?
Dyscalculics have difficulties with numbers. It is a learning difficulty in mathematics. Sometimes it is termed 'mathematics disorder' or 'mathematical disabilities'. As we shall see later, dyscalculia is also associated with other difficulties besides purely handling numbers, such as time management and spatial reasoning.
Dyscalculia is often associated with dyslexia - difficulties characterised by problems in reading, writing and spelling. Dyslexia was identified much earlier than dyscalculia and is much better understood. When diagnosed, especially in early childhood, targeted teaching can help a great deal. If not, frustration and low self-esteem can set in, and literacy problems can continue throughout life with obvious impacts on employment prospects.
Often, but not always, children can suffer from dyscalculia and dyslexia, but this book is concerned primarily with problems with numbers. I shall draw sometimes on the more advanced work done on dyslexia, but it is a separate issue - though in some people they may be related. Generally speaking, research on dyslexia is about 20 years ahead of that done on dyscalculia, so we still have much to learn, and many opportunities to discover how to cope better with the disability. Studies have suggested that suffering from dyscalculia makes it more difficult than having dyslexia to be successful in the world of work.
It has been estimated that low numeracy costs the UK £2.4 billion per year, mostly in poor productivity. At least 25 per cent of adults have maths deficiencies in the general UK population.
The word 'dyscalculia' comes from Greek and Latin and means 'counting badly'. The prefix 'dys' comes from the Greek and 'calculia' derives from the Latin 'calculare' - to count. 'Calculare' relates to 'calculus', which means a pebble or one of the counters on an abacus. So now you know.
The term 'dyscalculia' is a popularised, now generally accepted, form of describing a maths disability. It has been in general use since the 1960s, at least in the US. The American National Center for Learning Disabilities has defined dyscalculia as 'a wide range of lifelong learning disabilities involving math'. Researchers as far back as the early 1800s used terms such as 'arithmetic deficit', and so on. Today the media sometimes refers to 'math dyslexia', 'number blindness' or 'digit dyslexia'. But I shall use dyscalculia, as the most readily understood and handy term for the problems - and solutions - discussed in this book.
Dyscalculia is real, not some American fad. I've had it my whole life. Teachers know it is real. And it is recognised by major medical organisations, such as the World Health Organization.
How common is dyscalculia?
Estimates vary, according to the definition and nature of the research. In the UK and the US, the figure is usually given as 5-7 per cent of the population. (Although some estimates go as high as 11 per cent, Brian Butterworth's research in Cuba suggested a low of 3.6 per cent.) So, in an average class of, say, 30 children, one or two are likely to suffer from the disability. In Britain, then, more than 3 million people are likely to be dyscalculic, but the vast majority have not been diagnosed as such.
Many people suffer from dyscalculia, but they can still achieve great success. That is the main message of this book: to understand, to cope and to achieve. My two favourite programmes on TV in the 1960s were The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Happy Days. Mary Tyler Moore became a big TV star, despite her dyscalculia, as did 'The Fonz', Henry Winkler. Henry had a double whammy - dyscalculia and dyslexia, as did pop singer Cher. A more recent example is Mick Hucknall, the lead singer of the UK band Simply Red. He sold millions of records and made millions of pounds, but struggled with dyscalculia. We are told that even Albert Einstein had problems with basic maths, although that may be apocryphal. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison both left school at 12 because of their learning difficulties, not least in maths.
It is often said that dyslexia can encourage some sufferers to super- achieve - the list is endless: from President John F Kennedy, to John Lennon, Virgin Boss Sir Richard Branson to film producer
Steven Spielberg. Though there is less research-driven evidence, I am convinced that dyscalculia can also be overcome and, given enough motivation and energy, spectacular success can sometimes be achieved.
Although more males show evidence of dyslexia (70 per cent compared with 30 per cent of females), with dyscalculia, studies suggest the ratio is 50:50. Despite this evidence, Jenny Muddiman, an experienced teacher originally from Hampshire, England, told me that gender plays an important role in dealing with maths. She said: 'It's almost a feminine thing to say, "I'm not good at numbers." Mothers say: "I tell my kids to ask their dad." Maths is perceived as a more of a male thing.'
She thought that the media perpetuated this. 'They say girls are catching up, or outperforming boys in maths and sciences. The media are making it a gender issue.'
As we shall discover later, issues such as map-reading, or even indicating left and right, may often be associated with gender biases.
What causes dyscalculia?
Like dyslexia, dyscalculia is widely recognised as having a genetic component. For example, if one pair of twins is dyscalculic, the other twin is more likely to be dyscalculic if the twins are identical rather than if they are non-identical. Parents or siblings of dyscalculic children are ten times more likely to have the condition, compared with the general public.
Scientists now generally assume that maths ability resides primarily in the parietal lobes of the brain. It seems that these systems are abnormal in dyscalculics, although work on the actual physical cause and the hereditary factors has not yet produced one definitive medical explanation. And so dyscalculia has no definite 'cure' either.
Some researchers claim there is a correlation with premature birth. Some adolescent dyscalculics who had been born prematurely have lower gray matter density in the left intraparietal sulcus, the part of the brain where activity takes place during mental arithmetic. Other research has indicated a possible correlation with abnormality in the X chromosome.
Brian Butterworth believes that it is at heart a deficiency in basic number sense and not of memory, attention or language, as other experts have suggested. He says that learning basic arithmetical facts can seem like learning to repeat sounds in an unknown language for dyscalculics. 'We are beginning to understand how the brains of dyscalculic learners are different from typical learners, ' he said, 'but we still do not know why they are different.' And it is not yet clear whether remedial intervention makes the dyscalculic brain more normal, or whether intervention helps the dyscalculic learner find a different way of doing the same mathematical task.
Despite the academic debate and the fact that some primitive cultures have little or no sense of numbers of more than four or five, it is probable that we are born with an innate sense of numbers, but in dyscalculics that is impaired. We will be concerned with dyscalculia as a 'developmental' difficulty that a child may be born with. I will not be dealing with so-called 'acquired dyscalculia' that may have resulted from external injury or stroke. 'Acalculia' is related to serious brain damage, where there is no understanding of numbers, even counting to ten. But there are milder and more specific cases: for example, one man lost the memory of his times tables, but had no difficulty with addition and subtraction. I will be discussing only developmental dyscalculia (abbreviated to DD in scientific literature), and how it is possible to learn about how numbers work, to help children and adults deal with poor maths.
Dyscalculia occurs in people across the entire IQ range. Often, they do very well in other subjects, besides those involving maths. Even with maths-and without getting too technical -dyscalculics may suffer from arithmetic difficulties (such as calculation and number fact memory), do not suffer, or may even be very gifted, in abstract mathematical reasoning (though this is hard to test, and prove). Possibly, this was the case with Albert Einstein, but not - unfortunately - with me.
Key Points
* 'Dyscalculia' is the most convenient name for problems with maths that relate to natural development and not accidental brain injury
* Probably largely genetic, it affects the parietal lobes of the brain and reduces number sense
* It is a real disability recognised by the World Health Organization It occurs in approximately 5 per cent of the UK population. Each school class is likely to contain at least one dyscalculic
* It affects males and females equally
* Sufferers can achieve a great deal, and it is not related to general IQ levels.
CHAPTER 2What are the key symptoms?
Let's look first at obvious symptoms, which are likely to be exhibited early on in school. The manifestations of dyscalculia are many, and they are sometimes confused with other conditions such as attention-deficit disorders. The condition, once properly diagnosed, can vary from mild to severe. Although it is generally a lifelong difficulty, many coping mechanisms exist.
Maths problems at school
* Taking an bnormally long time to tell which number is larger or Smaller
* Trouble rounding up even fairly low numbers
* Reliance on strategies such as finger counting
* Confusion about mathematical symbols: +,-, % and x
* Difficulty with addition, subtraction etc
* Sometimes transposing/reversing numbers - writing 63 for 36, for example
* Sometimes confusing similar numbers, for example 3 and 8
* Poor mental arithmetic skills
* Trouble conceptualising basic formulae
* Problems with remembering maths operations - mastering it one day and completely forgetting it the next
* Inability to remember times tables
* Problem using calculators. Dyscalculics have to check a number of times - until the answers are the same two or three times
* Inability to remember numbers, even the phone number at home
* May have difficulties in reading a clock
* Sometimes difficulty in copying shapes accurately
* An inability to guess quantities (without counting) even with small quantities
* Difficulty in counting backwards from ten
* Many children with dyscalculia are not good at puzzles, which may suggest they have visual-spatial issues
* Difficulty keeping score during games. Football is easier, but cricket and tennis are more complex. They may have a good grasp of the principles of the games, but find it hard to plan ahead more than a few moves, in chess, for example.
The above are just a few of the issues dyscalculics will struggle with at school. When they become older, they sometimes overcome, or learn to evade, many of the difficulties. More often - if the problem is not addressed when young - they will resort to disguising their deficiencies. Adults, for example, will rarely count on their fingers in public (though I do sometimes, when I forget that people may be watching me!).
For a full list of symptoms for children and adults, see '50 + symptoms of dyscalculia' in the appendices.
Time and space problems
* Difficulty with telling the time. Conceptualising time and the passage of time when numbers are involved
* Dyscalculics will often be chronically unpunctual, especially when they are younger - before work disciplines often enforce a new rigour
* Judging distance
* They may have issues with comprehending or picturing mechanical processes
* They may struggle to visualise geographical locations - from states/counties in their own country to lay-out of streets in their own neighbourhood. In short, they often get lost, even in school. Although this behaviour is not typical, it can be disconcerting.
They may have problems with grasping north, south, east and west, even with a compass or map. Most young children have problems defining left and right, but it is much worse for dyscalculics. On into adulthood, many will still have a difficulty with defining left or right, especially under pressure, for example when giving directions to a driver. Dyscalculics will tend to have difficulties using a map.
In summary, a nine-year-old dyscalculic will have on average the same maths level as the typical six-year old. Generally, dyscalculics will plateau at the end of primary school and, without proper intervention, may make only one year of progress in secondary school.
Maths phobia
Sometimes young dyscalculics will develop a phobia about maths and just give up. The secret here is for the parent or teacher never to give in to the desire to label the child dumb or lazy. The children have usually done their very best for years, and just simply can't - with all the effort in the world-get to grips with numbers.
As one Australian teacher said of her own child, Lucy: 'Her writing was always very good; it's the maths that has been the issue. We sometimes have to struggle at school with making people understand that it's not because Lucy doesn't want to do it or can't be bothered. It's because she really cannot do it. She's unable to retain a lot of information.'
In my own case, I felt as though I was being asked to speak in an unknown foreign language for every minute of my arithmetic and algebra classes in school.
Some sufferers, young and old, develop outright phobias about numbers and doing any kind of maths. A note of caution is required here. Although many dyscalculics develop a phobia of maths, you can have a maths phobia without suffering from dyscalculia. Those in the latter group may add to the earlier-inaccurate-assumption that dyscalculia is simply a made-up mind-set, a psychosomatic condition that can be overcome by simply getting rid of the fear. In genuine dyscalculics, such an approach would be like saying a dyslexic had only to overcome his or her fear of spelling. Real phobia based on dyscalculia may induce genuine or feigned sickness and then truancy, all related to maths-avoidance behaviour.
Later on in the book I will look at ways of testing for actual dyscalculia, to screen out phobias in those who do not suffer from genuine numerical disorders, that is those that are genetic and developmental rather than psychological.
Adult dyscalculics
Testing for adult dyscalculia
Adults will probably not undergo any of the diagnostic screeners used in schools, so they may find the following check list useful. Tick the ones for which you answer 'yes'.
[] Do you habitually offer bank notes in a shop rather than work out change for a small purchase?
[] Do you have problems reading maps (especially grid references)?
[] Do you avoid reconciling your accounts and personal finances at the end of every month?
[] Do you use just one PIN number for all your cards?
[] Does it take you a long time to remember your own mobile phone number?
[] Do you habitually forget passwords?
[] Do you have difficulties with working out north/south/east/west or even left and right?
[] Do you always delegate somebody else to work out bills in a restaurant?
[] Do you often forget people's names, even when you know them quite well?
[] Do you have to rely in detail on diaries/ personal organisers etc to remember appointments?
[] Do you often lose important items such as keys?
[] Do you have a phobia about maths, especially mental arithmetic?
[] Are other members of your family very poor at maths?
[] Do you have difficulty in recalling maths facts from school?
[] Do you avoid checking your bills, especially credit card bills every month?
[] Do you have problems working out recipes using detailed weights and measures?
[] Do you have difficulties in working out Diy details - how long a piece a wood or how large a pane of glass must be?
[] Do you wince at working out Vat on a tradesman's estimate?
[] Do you struggle with working out the odds and what you might win on bets for the Derby or who will win a political leadership contest?
[] Can you easily convert your weight from imperial to metric (stones to kilos)?
[] Do you avoid internet price comparison sites?
[] Do you habitually fail to work our your weekly/monthly budget?
[] Do you find you don't fully understand how mortgages work, especially the advantages/disadvantages of tracker mortgages?
[] Do you tend to avoid using bus/train timetables?
[] Do you have problems working out exchange rates for foreign currencies?
[] Do you often hesitate when working out the tip in a restaurant?
[] Do you avoid checking your supermarket shopping receipts?
[] Are you slow in working out sales discounts in shops?
[] Do you have difficulty remembering when you are told what your blood pressure or cholesterol level is?
[] Do you let someone else work out the cost of your planned holiday?
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "It Just Doesn't Add Up"
by .
Copyright © 2014 Professor Paul Moorcraft.
Excerpted by permission of Tarquin Publications.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
About the author,
Introduction: Why did I write this book?,
Chapter 1: What is dyscalculia?,
Chapter 2: What are the key symptoms?,
Chapter 3: Related and similar disabilities,
Chapter 4: Testing for dyscalculia,
Chapter 5: Teaching dyscalculics,
Chapter 6: For parents of dyscalculics,
Chapter 7: For adult dyscalculics,
Chapter 8: 'Hey, you're talking about me!',
Chapter 9: Let the people speak,
Chapter 10: Coping mechanisms,
Conclusions: Making it all add up,
Appendices,
Further reading,
Endnotes,
Index,