Mathematics and LDs
Mathematics is an essential skill for navigating everyday life, from managing finances to interpreting data and making informed decisions. However, students with learning disabilities (LDs) that impact mathematical understanding may face challenges in key areas such as number sense, problem-solving, and mathematical reasoning. These difficulties can affect their ability to retrieve math facts from memory, process and sequence information, and apply logical strategies to solve problems.
Some individuals with persistent and significant mathematical difficulties may be diagnosed with Dyscalculia, a specific learning disability that affects numerical processing and mathematical fluency. However, difficulties with math can also arise due to other cognitive factors, including working memory deficits, executive functioning challenges, and language-based processing differences.
Building a strong foundation in numeracy involves recognizing math in real-world contexts, developing problem-solving strategies, and fostering confidence in mathematical thinking. A supportive learning environment, targeted interventions, and the integration of assistive tools can help students with LDs develop their mathematical skills and become more confident learners.
Math skills and Learning Disabilities
Learning difficulties in math can spring from any one of the following areas or from several in combination:
- Research has shown that many young students who go on to have math LDs demonstrate early difficulties in estimating quantities, and associating small quantities of items with printed numerals.
- Many students with math LDs have persistent trouble "memorizing" basic number facts and seem unable to develop efficient memory strategies on their own.
- Some students with math LDs have an excellent grasp of math concepts, but are inconsistent in calculating and paying attention to the operational sign, at borrowing or carrying appropriately, and at sequencing the steps in complex operations.
- Some students with math LDs are particularly hampered by the language aspects of math, resulting in confusion about terminology, difficulty following verbal explanations, and/or weak verbal skills for monitoring the steps of complex calculations.
- Some students with math LDs have difficulties in visual-spatial organization, which may result in confused arrangements of numerals and signs on the page, poor ‘number sense’, specific difficulty with pictorial representations and/or weak understanding of math concepts.
- Recent research has shown that working memory difficulties interfere with math problem-solving, where students must keep a number of items in mind at the same time.
In order to help students with math LDs it is important to understand the underlying skill areas where they are struggling and work specifically on those areas.
Relevant Resources on the LD@school Website
Click here to access the article Helping Students with LDs Learn to Diagram Math Problems
Further Resources
In this video professor Daniel Ansari from the University of Western Ontario discusses "Dyscalculia" from a neuroscience perspective.
In this video professor Brian Butterworth discusses "Dyscalculia" from the educators perspective.
Click here for an article about Learning Disabilities in Mathematics.