Dyscalculia is a term that encompasses various impairments in understanding and processing numbers. A person with this condition may struggle to recognize numbers visually or aurally, fail to grasp the concept of numbers, and face difficulties in performing basic arithmetic operations such as addition or subtraction.

Dyscalculia is typically identified during early school years. By the first or second grade, parents may notice that their child struggles significantly with math. Despite earnest efforts and even tutoring, the child cannot grasp numbers or execute simple mathematical tasks. This difficulty is rooted in the brain’s inability to process numerical information.

Recently, with the rising popularity of early childhood development programs, dyscalculia is often detected before children enter school, during preparatory courses or at development centers. Occasionally, it is identified later, in adolescence, but in such cases, symptoms are generally less pronounced.

In adults, dyscalculia can develop secondarily due to trauma, infections, or other conditions. These individuals may have previously processed numbers normally but lose the ability after such events.

General information

Dyscalculia, often referred to as “mathematical dyslexia,” is a persistent and specific difficulty in processing numerical information that manifests in childhood. It can range from a partial to complete inability to comprehend numbers and mathematical symbols, conduct comparative analyses of quantities, or perform arithmetic operations.

Dyscalculia affects up to 10% of the population, occurring equally in both sexes. It often coexists with conditions like reading disorders, ADHD, and insomnia. Chronic struggles with arithmetic can lead to a general aversion to exact sciences, affect performance in humanities, and hinder social adaptation in school environments.

Pure dyscalculia is rare. Most cases are accompanied by other disorders, such as dysgraphia, dyslexia, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Causes of dyscalculia

Dyscalculia may stem from hereditary, socio-pedagogical, or psychogenic factors. Identifying the underlying cause is critical for effective treatment and prognosis.

Key contributing factors to dyscalculia include:

• Perinatal brain damage: This is the most common cause in preschool and early school-aged children, where disrupted blood flow during fetal development affects brain function.
• Impaired brain circulation: Dyscalculia can occur after a stroke, for instance.
• Degenerative neurological conditions: Disorders like dementia or Alzheimer’s may involve dyscalculia.
• Brain trauma: Contusions or concussions that result in hematomas can lead to dyscalculia.
• Infections: Viral or bacterial meningitis and encephalitis often impair numerical processing abilities.
• Brain tumors: Growing tumors can compress specific brain areas, causing focal symptoms, including dyscalculia.
• Toxic exposure: Prolonged contact with harmful substances may irreversibly damage brain regions responsible for numerical comprehension.
• Developmental brain anomalies: These often result in dyscalculia alongside other impairments.
• Genetic disorders: Dyscalculia in such cases is typically diagnosed early and rarely occurs in isolation.

Sudden dyscalculia in adults may signal critical brain issues, such as a stroke or tumor, and requires immediate medical attention.

Pathogenesis

Dyscalculia arises from underdevelopment of the intraparietal sulcus, responsible for processing visual information in the parietal lobe. Dysfunction in this region disrupts neuron activity in adjacent areas, including the temporal lobe, prefrontal cortex, subcortical zones, and cingulate cortex.

Numerical comprehension relies on visual representation of numbers and tasks, but cognitive deficits associated with dyscalculia complicate decoding and understanding such information. Additional factors include reduced attention span, slower data processing, and underdeveloped short-term memory and planning abilities.

What is it like having dyscalculia?

Living with dyscalculia can present various challenges in everyday life, impacting both academic performance and daily activities. Individuals with dyscalculia may experience:

Academic difficulties

• Mathematical Tasks: Struggles with basic arithmetic operations, understanding mathematical concepts, and applying math in problem-solving situations.
• Self-esteem Issues: Frequent difficulties in math can lead to frustration and diminished self-confidence, especially in a school environment where math performance is emphasized.

Everyday challenges

• Practical Applications: Difficulty in managing time, budgeting, and understanding measurements can impact daily activities, such as cooking, shopping, or planning schedules.
• Social Situations: Struggling with math-related tasks in social contexts, such as games that involve scoring or counting, can lead to feelings of exclusion or anxiety.

Classification and types of dyscalculia

Based on the mechanism, dyscalculia is classified as:

• Primary: Direct impairment of the brain’s numerical processing center.
• Secondary: Resulting from damage to other brain areas indirectly involved in numerical processing.

Dyscalculia can affect various components of numerical processing, resulting in different types:

• Verbal: Difficulty in recognizing and naming numbers, though written tasks may be performed successfully.
• Practical: Challenges in abstract numerical tasks, such as counting or categorizing by quantity, size, or shape.
• Graphical: Trouble translating numbers into written symbols, despite proficiency in oral arithmetic tasks.
• Lexical: Difficulty reading numerical symbols, though auditory comprehension may remain intact.
• Operational: Inability to perform basic arithmetic tasks.
• Ideognostic: Challenges in mental calculations, requiring physical aids like counting sticks or diagrams.
• Sensory: Impairments in auditory perception of numbers, often linked to temporal lobe damage.
• Frontal: Inability to perform numerical operations due to frontal lobe dysfunction, often accompanied by other cognitive issues.

Is dyscalculia a form of ADHD?

Dyscalculia and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are distinct neurodevelopmental disorders, but they can co-occur and share some overlapping symptoms. Dyscalculia is characterized by persistent difficulties in understanding numbers, learning arithmetic, and performing mathematical tasks. In contrast, ADHD is primarily marked by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.

Distinct characteristics

• Nature of Challenges: Dyscalculia specifically impacts mathematical abilities, leading to challenges such as difficulty understanding quantity, number sense, and mathematical operations. ADHD, on the other hand, affects executive function, attention regulation, and behavior, which can influence learning in various domains, including mathematics.
• Diagnosis and Assessment: Dyscalculia is diagnosed through specific assessments that evaluate numerical understanding and mathematical skills, whereas ADHD is evaluated using behavioral assessments and questionnaires focusing on attention-related symptoms.

Co-occurrence

While dyscalculia is not a form of ADHD, individuals with ADHD may display difficulties with mathematics due to inattention or impulsivity, which can further exacerbate the challenges faced by those with dyscalculia. Research indicates that a significant number of individuals with dyscalculia also exhibit symptoms of ADHD, emphasizing the importance of comprehensive evaluation and tailored interventions for those experiencing both conditions.

Dyscalculia comorbid conditions

Dysgraphia

Dysgraphia is a learning disability that affects writing abilities, including handwriting, spelling, and composition. When dyscalculia and dysgraphia co-occur, individuals may experience compounded challenges in both mathematics and writing tasks.

• Impact on Learning: Students with both conditions may struggle to express their mathematical understanding on paper, have trouble organizing written work, and face frustration during assessments that require both mathematical calculations and written explanations.

Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability that impacts reading and language processing. While dyscalculia specifically affects mathematical skills, some individuals may experience both dyscalculia and dyslexia, leading to unique challenges in learning.

• Common Traits: Both dyscalculia and dyslexia are neurodevelopmental disorders that may share underlying cognitive processing issues. For example, difficulties with phonological processing in dyslexia can also affect the ability to understand numerical concepts and symbols in dyscalculia.

Development of mathematical concepts in children

The development of mathematical concepts in children is not yet fully studied. Normally, after the first year, a child quickly starts to understand the difference between small and large quantities (e.g., realizing three candies are more than two).

By the age of four, they can count up to 4-10, and by five, they grasp the concept of numbers. Around the same time, they begin learning to write and recognize numbers within a ten-range.

Over the next couple of years, the understanding of numbers as combinations of hundreds, tens, and units develops. Addition and subtraction emerge first (intuitively understood even by four-year-olds without using symbols), while multiplication and division are more complex and appear later, during school years.

Research indicates that primary disruptions in counting operations (pure operational dyscalculia) are extremely rare. More commonly, deficits in related functions hinder the full acquisition of mathematical concepts, creating the external appearance of dyscalculia. Successful mastery of counting operations requires:

1. Attention, short-term, and good working memory, as well as verbal memory for automated counting operations, involving neurodynamic properties of the brain (the first functional block), the third functional block (premotor and prefrontal cortex), and the left temporal region.
2. For non-automated mathematical actions, visualization abilities are crucial, relying on spatial representations handled predominantly by the right hemisphere, specifically the parietal-occipital region in children.
3. For solving multi-step tasks, planning and temporal organization of actions are required (e.g., determining the sequence of steps). This also involves spatial representations and frontal lobe development.
4. Writing multi-digit numbers (especially in languages like Dutch and German, where numbers are spoken in reverse order) demands correct order-writing, avoiding reversals (e.g., 46/64 or 91/19). This requires spatial skills (right hemisphere), voluntary attention, program retention (frontal lobe), auditory-speech recognition, auditory attention (if the number is dictated), and interhemispheric coordination.

Mechanisms of mathematical concept formation

Initial understanding of quantity and sets involves the parietal areas of both hemispheres and external space evaluation. German neuropsychologist M.G. von Aster highlights dyscalculia in Gerstmann syndrome, which includes finger agnosia (inability to perceive and remember fingers, understand left-right distinctions, etc.). However, the connection between counting operations and finger recognition is debated and not conclusively proven.

1. Symbolic representation of numbers and mathematical operations forms in the posterior associative cortex of the left hemisphere.
2. As operations become automated, they shift to the left hemisphere, including the basal ganglia, reducing energy demands. New, complex operations require correct functioning of the parietal cortex in the right hemisphere and interhemispheric interaction.
3. Processing auditory tasks requires the auditory-speech analyzer and modality-specific memory and attention.
4. Solving complex tasks and maintaining all conditions in mind depend on the frontal lobes.
5. Proper cortical tone maintenance involves subcortical structures (the first functional block).
6. Effective information exchange requires well-functioning interhemispheric connections.

Thus, dyscalculia can arise from dysfunctions in either hemisphere or their interaction.

Symptoms of dyscalculia

Condition can be identified before school if parents and educators are attentive. Most diagnoses occur during the first two years of primary school. In adulthood, symptoms are often managed by career choices that avoid numerical tasks.

Key symptoms include difficulties in:

• Recognizing and writing numbers.
• Understanding concepts like “greater than” or “less than.”
• Understanding time, when looking at the clock or watch.
• Solving abstract logical problems.
• Estimating distances traveled.

Mistakes often observed in dyscalculic individuals:

• Misinterpreting problems without visual data.
• Misidentifying spoken numbers (e.g., writing “ten” instead of “nine”).
• Difficulty visually grouping objects without counting individually.

Without correction, dyscalculia significantly impacts academic success in mastering other subjects in middle school. The child finds it difficult to comprehend the wording of problems, hold numerical inputs in their mind, and analyze them using various mathematical approaches. Teenagers may struggle with navigating spaces, budgeting, understanding graphs, and interpreting tabular data.

How to recognize counting disorders?

In primary dyscalculia, a person doesn’t understand the concept of numbers at all. For instance, they cannot see the difference between 132 and 123, fail to distinguish or compare numbers, and cannot perform even the simplest arithmetic operations. Typically, other issues also arise. Such individuals often confuse “left” and “right” and have difficulty orienting themselves in space.

Secondary dyscalculia usually presents with a broader range of symptoms. A person may fail to recognize or name numbers, mix up arithmetic operations, and be unable to memorize numbers by ear, among other issues. Signs of impairment in other brain regions also often become apparent. The individual may experience speech disturbances, memory gaps, or difficulty performing certain tasks.

If you notice characteristic symptoms in a first-grader, seek help at a clinic. The earlier the diagnosis is made and correction begins, the more significant and evident the results will be.

Complications

Dyscalculia complicates the process of mastering a standard school curriculum, leading to poor grades across multiple subjects and the development of psychological problems. Consequently, the inability to operate with numbers diminishes healthy cognitive interest, results in skipped classes, and, in the long term, leads to abandoning full-fledged education, lowering the quality of life, and contributing to volitional psychological disorders.

Assessment

Consult specialists at our center for assistance. The doctor examines upbringing in the family, identifies any neurological diagnoses, and clarifies hereditary factors (such as dyslexia or dyscalculia in parents).

Dyscalculia is diagnosed using specific tests that evaluate:

• The ability to classify, systematize, compare, and count.
• Proficiency in performing arithmetic operations.
• The capability to recode data (e.g., solve problems requiring the translation of words into mathematical formats, such as “reduce by” or “increase, then subtract”).

The purpose of diagnosis is to comprehensively examine general intelligence levels, assess memory, and evaluate speech development. This helps differentiate dyscalculia from developmental delays, speech development issues, or other diagnoses, enabling the selection of an appropriate treatment strategy.

At what age can it be diagnosed?

Dyscalculia can be challenging to diagnose due to the gradual development of mathematical skills in children and the variability in their learning styles. However, signs of dyscalculia can often be identified during the early school years, typically around ages 6 to 8.

Early indicators

• Preschool Years: Before formal diagnosis, parents and educators may notice early signs of difficulty with number concepts, such as struggling to count, recognizing numbers, or understanding quantity comparisons.
• Elementary School: As children enter school and begin learning more complex mathematical concepts (addition, subtraction, etc.), difficulties often become more apparent. Children may have trouble understanding basic math facts, performing calculations, or grasping the concept of time and money.

Formal assessment

A formal diagnosis typically occurs when a child is in second or third grade, as standardized assessments can more accurately measure mathematical abilities compared to expected developmental milestones. It is essential for educators and parents to work closely with psychologists or educational specialists who can conduct comprehensive evaluations to determine the presence of dyscalculia.

Treatment

Treatment involves a comprehensive professional approach with participation from pediatric clinical psychologists, neuropsychologists, and neurologists. An individual program should be created for each child, and regular sessions are essential for success. Medication may also be prescribed by a neurologist (not by a speech therapist or social educator) after a detailed examination.

If parents consider genetic factors and aim to prevent difficulties in learning counting, preventive measures should be taken early. The first step is thorough diagnostics and correction of neurological pathologies.

Popular questions and answers

Is dyscalculia always a mental disorder?

This disorder is not an independent disease but a consequence of neurological or psychological issues. With timely correction, dyscalculia can be successfully overcome. Schedule an appointment with our specialist.

Can it be treated in adults?

If dyscalculia appears in an adult who previously had no arithmetic difficulties, immediate consultation at a clinic is crucial. These symptoms could signal serious brain issues requiring urgent treatment.