Due to the cognitive difficulties that many children with dyslexia experience, such as a weaker working memory and slower processing speed, they may often (but not always) struggle in many areas of mathematics. Some of these areas may include:

·      Remembering how to do a calculation or follow a procedure

·      Sequencing and pattern spotting

·      Mathematical language and word problems

·      Automatic retrieval of information such as times tables

·      Immature strategies such as counting on their fingers

It is important to note that these difficulties do not necessarily mean that your child has dyscalculia.

Dyscalculia:

Dyscalculic learners typically struggle with 'numerosity' or 'number sense', affecting their understanding of numbers and basic number concepts. These difficulties are persistent, emerge at a young age, and are not in line with their age or educational background. Standardised assessments confirm the substantial nature of these challenges, which do not typically extend to non-numerical subjects.

Some individuals will have a co-occurrence of dyslexia alongside dyscalculia, whilst others may have dyslexia with less severe maths difficulties. However, it is estimated that 10% of children with dyslexia are gifted mathematically. As you can see in this Venn Diagram, there are many shared difficulties that can occur:

It is vitally important to identify and support children with numeracy difficulties, for whatever the cognitive, biological or environmental reasons, at an early age, in order to improve their chances for success during school and in to adult life.

Some strategies to support learners with maths difficulties include:

• Using concrete resources, such as bead strings, multilink cubes, place value apparatus and coins.

• Use visual aids such as a hundred square, number lines, diagrams and digit cards.

• Look for creative ways of rote learning the times tables and number bonds (using pictures or stories)

• Teaching through games such as bingo, dominoes and board games

• Displaying posters around the room with key vocabulary

• Teaching visualisation and techniques such as highlighting, mnemonics and colour-coding.

• Using fun websites and apps (such as ‘Squeebles’, for primary aged children or ‘IXL’ which goes from Reception up to Year 13).

• Allow plenty of time to process the information and to carry out calculations

• Encourage a growth mindset and that making mistakes is part of learning!