INFORMATION ON DYSCALCULIA
Dyscalculia can be defined as a specific neurological disorder affecting a person's ability to understand and/or manipulate numbers. Dyscalculia is often used to refer specifically to the inability to perform operations in math or arithmetic, but is defined by some educational professionals as a more fundamental inability to conceptualize numbers themselves as an abstract concept of comparative quantities.CAUSES OF DYSCALCULIA
Dyscalculia has several underlying causes. One of the most prominent is a weakness in visual processing therefore students with dyscalculia have a difficultly visualizing numbers and often mentally mix up the numbers, resulting in what appear to be "stupid mistakes."Other causes may be:
1. A low intelligence quotient.
2. Short term memory being disturbed or reduced, making it difficult to remember calculations.
3. Congenital or hereditary disorders. Studies show indications of this, but it is not yet concrete.
4. A combination of these factors.
SYMPTOMS OF DYSCALCULIA
Some of symptoms of dyscalculia are:1. Difficulty with numbers that is poor understanding of the signs +, -, / and x, or may confuse these mathematical symbols.
2. Difficulty with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division or may find it difficult to understand the words “plus,” “add,” “add-together”.
3. May reverse or transpose numbers for example 63 for 36, or 785 for 875.
4. Difficulty with times tables.
5. Poor mental arithmetic skills.
6. Difficulty telling the time and following directions.
