The Symptoms of Dyscalculia

Just like "dyslexia" refers to the otherwise intelligent child (or adult) who has severe reading problems, one could use the term "dyscalculia" to refer to the otherwise intelligent child (or adult) who has severe mathematical problems.

Dyscalculia symptoms include:

• Poor understanding of the signs +, -, ÷ and x, or may confuse these mathematical symbols.
• Difficulty with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division or may find it difficult to understand the words "plus," "add," "add-together."
• Difficulty with times tables.
• Poor mental arithmetic skills.
• May have trouble even with a calculator due to difficulties in the process of feeding in variables.
• May reverse or transpose numbers for example 63 for 36, or 785 for 875.
• Difficulty with conceptualizing time and judging the passing of time.
• Difficulty with everyday tasks like checking change.
• Difficulty keeping score during games.
• Inability to comprehend financial planning or budgeting, sometimes even at a basic level, for example, estimating the cost of the items in a shopping basket or balancing a checkbook.
• Inability to grasp and remember mathematical concepts, rules, formulae, and sequences.
• May have a poor sense of direction (i.e., north, south, east, and west), potentially even with a compass.
• May have difficulty mentally estimating the measurement of an object or distance (e.g., whether something is 10 or 20 feet away).
• Extreme cases may lead to a phobia of mathematics and mathematical devices.