What are the educational implications for children with Dyscalculia?

What are the educational implications for children with Dyscalculia?

Sandra Hutchinson (Editor, the Good Schools Guide: Special Educational Needs) gives expert video advice on: What are the educational implications for children with Dyslexia?; Are there any medical conditions that can give rise to SEN?; Are there any conditions which have yet to be formally recognised? and more...

Well, Dyscalculia is a trouble with math. It's where children have difficulty with numbers. They may find even counting very difficult. They will almost certainly count on their fingers when they're adding up, they will find times tables very difficult, and so on. I think a lot of the problem is that children in maths are often not taught from very good strategies. They're not taught from the concrete to the abstract. Thay're expected to abstract straightaway. I would suggest that, for any child with Dyscalculia, that the way forward is a multi-sensory approach so that it can actually understand what two rows of three look like and how it differs from three rows of two. That they can actually feel numbers using an abacus and using cubes. Not just using cubes for counting, but to look at a cube and to draw it, to use cubes to make sequences and patterns, to actually be very involved and to use all their senses to help them develop.