Hello everyone!!
My intention in this post is explain a little bit the dyscalculia and what the treatment in the classrooms.
Dyscalculia is a specific difficulty for learning arithmetic independent of intelligence and instruction, with a neurobiological and genetic basis (Sans et al., 2013). Therefore, this difficulty hinders the learning of students who suffer it.
Dyscalculia has different types (Kosc, 1974):
-Verbal: The problem is in naming quantities, numbers, terms, symbols and relationships.
-Practognostic: the difficulties in these cases are to enumerate, compare and manipulate objects in a mathematical way.
-Lexical: the problem is at the moment of reading the mathematical symbols.
-Graphic: in this type of dyscalculia, the difficulty is in the writing of mathematical symbols.
-Ideognostics: in this type, mental operations and the understanding of mathematical concepts are the most difficult aspects to be carried out by the person who suffers it.
-Operational: the difficulty in this case is in the execution of operations and numerical calculations.
Depending on the stage of education in which the student is, the difficulties are different:
-In pre-school: the problems are usually to count and order.
-In primary school: the difficulties are more diverse, difficulties in identifying arithmetical symbols, problems in understanding the positional order of numbers (units, tens...)...
-In secondary: problems in applying mathematical concepts to aspects such as money, difficulties in understanding information from graphs or tables, lack of flexibility when looking for more than one solution to a mathematical problem...
Once I have defined dyscalculia and the types that exist, I will try to explain some of the tips for adapting academic material to children with this learning difficulty.
Like in all the scholar difficulties two of the most important things to help the pupils with dyscalculia are: the early detection and intervention and define the type and degree of the problem, in order to be able to adapt the help as much as possible.
Normally students with dyscalculia have intelligence appropriate to their age, therefore modifications and adaptations have to be methodological and not content. Some examples of this are: more time to solve the problems and activities, use of calculator, use of the fingers to make sums, reinforce much what has been learned so far, the use of visual strategies (avoid offering abstract information as much as possible), make the mathematics attractive by relating them to the student's topics of interest…
To complement this explanation, I share with you a video in which a student with dyscalculia performs mathematical activities with a teacher.
At the beginning of the video, the teacher asks about the previous class, in order to reinforce what has already been learned. In this video we can see how the student (Luna) carries out activities with different materials, which make the activity more enjoyable and attractive.
Information and images taken from:
Benedicto-López, Patricia & Rodríguez-Cuadrado, Sara (2019). Discalculia: manifestaciones clínicas, evaluación y diagnóstico. Perspectivas actuales de intervención educativa. RELIEVE, 25(1), art. 7. doi: http://doi.org/10.7203/relieve.25.1.10125
Ezpeleta, L i Toro, J. (2014). Psicopatología del desarrollo.(8a, ed.). Madrid: Pirámide
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