Developmental disorders considerably condition the life of those who present them. Although some children have difficulties with certain skills, others have to face learning problems with biological causes, so that the complexity to remedy it is much greater.
There are those who have an innate talent for mathematics, while other people find it difficult to understand it. However, being bad at numbers is not the same as having to deal with a true developmental disorder in which numbers, mathematics, and calculation are extremely confusing or incomprehensible. In the latter case, we are talking about dyscalculia.
Dyscalculia is a learning disorder with a neurobiological origin, whereby the person or child who suffers from it shows significant difficulties in comprehending and understanding everything related to numbers and mathematics. It is a circumstance very similar to dyslexia, only that it affects numbers instead of letters.
The child with dyscalculia confuses numbers, has trouble counting, making associations and numerical calculations. They can reverse the writing of numbers, write them incorrectly, confuse similar numbers (such as 6 and 9), they cannot associate that a number is equivalent to the amount of certain units, it is difficult for them to make series of numbers, associate the symbols of the number with the word in letters, omit numbers when counting or cannot start counting from a certain number, but must recite from memory from 1. They also find it difficult to learn the multiplication tables, add, subtract, divide and multiply . They even have a hard time understanding concepts like perceptions of size, space, and direction.
Dyscalculia significantly complicates the day-to-day development of those who suffer from it. Not only in school performance, but also when it comes to managing money, paying or going around a store, recognizing your house number, learning the time, doing basic mental calculations, shopping or following a recipe for kitchen. Therefore, it is important to diagnose it as soon as possible for its treatment.
According to reports from Smartick –an online method of learning mathematics and reading for children–, the ideal age for the diagnosis of dyscalculia is between 6 and 8 years. An early diagnosis is important to be able to develop intervention and treatment programs and thus minimize the difficulties of this disorder.
Once dyscalculia has been diagnosed, its treatment consists of a specific and comprehensive intervention that encompasses both work with specialists in learning disorders and curricular adaptations at school. Of course, the involvement of the family also plays a fundamental role. From Smartick they highlight that children with dyscalculia require adapted and daily training, which is based on the understanding of the concepts and their procedures thanks to the use of certain materials with which to facilitate numerical comprehension.
