Bright Heart Owl Logo

Does your child struggle with math, even after extra help?

They may have dyscalculia. Learn about the signs, symptoms, and strategies to help your child overcome this learning difficulty and achieve their full potential.

Understanding Dyscalculia: A Guide for Parents

Seeing your child struggle with maths can be tough. They may find simple sums hard, forget number facts, or have trouble understanding mathematical ideas. This can often leave them confused, stressed, and lacking confidence. You might be wondering how you can best support them through these challenges.

Dyscalculia is a learning difficulty that makes it hard for children to work with numbers and maths. Parents play a big role in helping their child by learning about the condition and offering the right support. With good resources and a positive approach, parents can help their children gain confidence at school and build skills for the future.

Understanding Dyscalculia
Dyscalculia can make those who suffer from it feel miserable while learning about subjects like maths

What is dyscalculia?

Dyscalculia is a learning difficulty that makes it hard to understand and work with numbers. People with dyscalculia may struggle with basic maths, counting, telling the time, or understanding fractions and percentages. They might also have trouble remembering maths facts, following steps, or recognising math symbols. Though less talked about than dyslexia, dyscalculia can greatly affect everyday tasks involving numbers.

Dyscalculia is a condition rooted in the brain and has nothing to do with laziness or lack of effort. With the right strategies and support, children can succeed. By learning about dyscalculia, parents can boost their child’s confidence and math skills.

Understanding Dyscalculia
With the right strategies and support, children with dyscalculia can learn how to manage this learning disability better

Common symptoms to watch for

Spotting dyscalculia in your child can be challenging, but knowing the common signs can help. Every child is different, but here are some key symptoms parents should look out for.

If your child continues to struggle working with numbers (not just struggling with maths), it might be worth getting an evaluation. Catching these issues early means you can take steps to help them overcome challenges and succeed in numerical-based subjects.

Understanding Dyscalculia
Managing dyscalculia requires time and patience from both the parents and teachers or tutors

Is dyscalculia different from dyslexia?

Dyslexia and dyscalculia are learning disabilities, but they affect different skills. Dyslexia makes reading, writing, and language difficult, while dyscalculia involves struggles with numbers, number abstraction and math problems. Understanding the differences helps identify these conditions and provide the right support.

Dyscalculia:

Dyscalculia is a learning difficulty that makes working with numbers and maths hard. People with dyscalculia may struggle to recognise numbers, count, follow steps, or remember basic mathematical facts. They can also find it tough to understand things like space, time, maths symbols, and ideas.

Dyslexia:

Dyslexia affects how people read, write, and understand language. Those with dyslexia may find it hard to recognise letters and words, sound out text, spell correctly, or read smoothly. A common feature of dyslexia is difficulty hearing and working with the sounds in words, known as phonological processing challenges.

Some people can have both dyslexia and dyscalculia, even though they are different. With the right understanding and assessments, parents, teachers, and professionals can offer tailored support and develop strategies that meet their child’s unique needs. Working memory plays a role in both dyslexia and dyscalculia.

Understanding Dyscalculia
A professional assessment is required for diagnosis of dyscalculia

Professional evaluation for diagnosis

Diagnosing dyscalculia means getting an assessment from an educational psychologist or a specialist teacher. These experts are trained to spot behaviour and check your child’s understanding and manipulation of numbers. Using tests and observations, they can confirm if it’s dyscalculia or another issue causing the maths difficulties.

A professional evaluation helps confirm a diagnosis and pinpoints your child’s learning needs. It provides clear steps to create strategies that tackle challenges and improve learning. If you think your child has dyscalculia, getting a professional evaluation is the first step to helping them with maths.

How to support children with dyscalculia

Maths can often feel tricky or overwhelming, especially for kids with dyscalculia. But there are ways for parents to make it easier and more enjoyable. Here are some simple, practical tips to try!

Working closely with teachers and creating an individual education plan (ILP)

Working with teachers is vital when helping a child with dyscalculia. Parents and teachers can team up to create an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) or Individual Education Plan (IEP). This plan sets clear goals, lists useful strategies, and makes adjustments to support the child with maths. Regular meetings with teachers help track progress, identify areas needing extra help, and update the plan to enhance the child’s learning experience.

Progress takes time, so it’s important to be patient. Encourage children with dyscalculia and offer positive feedback to keep them motivated. Celebrate their small wins and provide a safe, supportive space where they can build confidence and enjoy learning maths. Every child learns differently, and with the right support, they can overcome challenges and succeed in math.

Specialised dyscalculia tutoring

Bright Heart understands that maths can be challenging for children with dyscalculia. Our friendly tutors offer personalised support tailored to each child’s needs. We use simple steps, clear instructions, and practical strategies to make learning easier. With fun and engaging lessons, we help children build confidence and develop key skills. Our Education Consultants work with our tutors to create an Individual Learning Plan for each student. Get in touch with Bright Heart Education today to learn how we can support your child.


Share this article

Facebook
LinkedIn