When Your Brain Cannot Do 2 + 2: A Case of Developmental Dyscalculia

Children who have great difficulties learning simple arithmetic problems may have a little-known learning problem known as developmental dyscalculia. Children with dyscalculia have math abilities that are much lower than those of their friends who are of the same age. Also, their difficulties are long lasting, and you cannot explain their problems by poor teaching or by other brain disorders. Even though you might have some problems learning math at different times during class, children with dyscalculia experience a lot of difficulties all the time: they just continue to find it hard to learn math. This is important to know because some children struggle with math for some time but then get it. These children do not have dyscalculia [1]. It is only those who continue to have problems have a real difficulty called developmental dyscalculia. It is very common for young children with dyscalculia to use different ways of solving a math problem (such as finger counting), which are very slow, while their friends without dyscalculia remember the answer without counting. For their classmates, the answer just pops into their heads – they have a good memory for the number facts.