Dyscalculia For Children and Young People
Welcome to the Dyscalculia Network’s page for children and young people.
Below, you will learn more about dyscalculia, how it can be diagnosed, and what can be done to help at school and at home.
What is Dyscalculia
Dyscalculia is a specific learning difficulty that some children in your school might have.
Did you know that in a group of about 20 people, at least 1 person might have dyscalculia?
Dyscalculia makes understanding numbers and maths tricky.
Children with dyscalculia might struggle with –
- Counting, estimating and comparing numbers
- Understanding place value
- Remembering number bonds or times tables
- Solving maths word problems
- Telling the time and understanding time durations (how long or short a period of time is)
- Counting and understanding money
However, it is important to keep in mind that even though some children struggle with one or more of these topics in maths, it doesn’t mean they necessarily have dyscalculia.
Sometimes it is because they feel anxious about maths (this is called maths anxiety). Or maybe, they had a lot of time off school, or they have another learning difficulty, like dyslexia, that can impact their maths learning.
Dyscalculia isn’t something that goes away as you grow up, even with lots of practice and help from teachers and parents. It is a life-long learning difference.
Nevertheless, people with dyscalculia can still learn maths and make progress in their maths understanding – when they work really hard and get lots of help from parents and teachers!
This means having dyscalculia doesn’t mean a person is ‘stupid’. In fact, people with dyscalculia often have many talents and can be very smart.
You can complete a special Bloc picture of all your, or your friend’s, strengths and superpowers here.
Find out more about support and assessment
Hover over each picture to reveal all
OR
Everyone will keep working together to do their best to help the child feel more confident about maths.
Download an Information sheet about assessment
The good news is that there are lots of things we can all do to make life with dyscalculia easier!
Bloc’s Top Tips to help a friend with dyscalculia
- Be kind: When your friend is finding maths hard, be kind to them and remind them that we all find things tricky sometimes.
- Help them:You could offer to help or support them by going with them to talk to a grown-up.
- Remind them what superpowers and strengths they have: Remind your friend that they have lots of talents. Make a list together of all the things they are good at.
- Play with them: At playtime or after school, do things with your friend that they enjoy, to help them relax.
Bloc’s Top Tips for a child with Dyscalculia
- Ask for help: Remember you can always ask for help. Everyone needs help sometimes, even grown-ups! It is useful to talk to your friends or ask your teacher or a grown-up at home for help when you feel ‘stuck’.
- Use things you can see and touch: Bloc loves glass nuggets as counters and using Base 10 blocks.
- Take it step by step: Break tricky problems into smaller steps. One small step at a time makes things feel much easier.
- Make maths a game: Play fun maths games to learn while having fun! It can help make numbers feel less scary.
- Make maths real: Look out for maths when you are baking, doing craft, or at the supermarket. Bloc challenges you to find maths all around you!
Some children also find their own ways to help themselves.
For example, using a song instead of a stopwatch to time their activities and tasks. However, what may help one person, may not help another. It is important to find and use the tools that help you!
Useful FREE Downloads for Primary Children
Bloc Colouring (Outline)
Bloc Dot to Dot
Bloc My Strengths Poster
With thanks to Jess Maisey, Kinga Morsanyi and Korbinian Moeller from Loughborough University for their support producing these resources.
