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Abstract
Dyscalculia or math learning disorder has been defined as current academic skills in math well below the average range in culturally and linguistically appropriate tests, not be better explained by developmental, neurological, sensory or motor disorders and significantly interfering with academic achievement, occupational performance, or activities of daily living. Children with dyscalculia can have difficulty with learning to count and understanding the one-to-one correspondence between numbers and objects, estimating numbers and quantities, telling time, doing mental math and learning math concepts. Teachers can use screening instruments combined with progress monitoring to identify at-risk students, and diagnostic tools are best administered by special educators or educational psychologists. Between 17% and 70% of children with dyscalculia have dyslexia, and the comorbidity rate of dyscalculia with ADHD is 11%. Preventive programs usually focus on supporting students at risk and assisting them before they fall behind. Remedial interventions involve intensive, multi-component instruction individualized to a child's specific needs, and modifications to instructional practice are also suggested for children with dyscalculia. Dyscalculia is a persistent and enduring specific learning disability with life-long impact on an individual's job opportunities and future earnings potential. The primary care physician's role in the management of dyscalculia includes ensuring educational advocacy for the family, screening for sensory and medical conditions, initiating appropriate subspecialist referrals and directing families towards community resources.
Keywords: Dyscalculia, dyslexia, development, education, public health
Introduction
Mathematics is defined as "the science of numbers and their operations, interrelations, combinations, generalizations, and abstractions and of space configurations and their structure, measurement, transformations, and generalizations"(1). Beyond being a science, math as it is known in United States (US) and Canada, and "maths" in other parts of the world has a practical application in daily living, from monetary calculations, to estimation of distance, time and speed to a physician calculating fluid and medication dosing per units of weight.
How is math learned?
The foundation of math was previously thought to be not innate, but acquired through learning (2). However, recent research has found that infants as young as 4 months old have a sense of number which supports the theory that there is an innate human sense of numbers called "numerosity" which is presumed to be the basis of math (3). Formal learning of...
