Dyscalculia: Functional Impact, Causes, Signs, and Treatment

Dyscalculia

            Dyscalculia is a learning difficulty that impedes an individual's ability to do basic arithmetic like addition, division, subtraction, and multiplication. People who have this condition often take longer when working on mathematical problems than people without the disease. Further, people with this condition are more prone to mistakes in their calculations. While all people can struggle with different mathematical problems, those with dyscalculia struggle to a greater extent, and these difficulties are poised to persist over time. The condition is also the same as mathematics anxiety, but people who have it react strongly to activities that involve mathematics problems. Children, for instance, can get frustrated and upset when playing board games that require some arithmetic reasoning. Studies indicate that up to 6% of the global population have the condition (Lewis et al., 2020), that the members are heterogeneous because of variability in working memory (Cárdenas et al., 2021), and are not well documented beyond mathematical problem (Vigna et al., 2022). Therefore, the current paper aims to increase awareness of this condition and its impact on day-to-day life activities and interactions.

            In this regard, the paper will first dwell on the conceptualization of the condition in which different hypotheses are discussed. This will then be followed by an attempt to establish the causes or the risk factors that the 6% of the global population was exposed to for the condition to occur. A literature review will break down current literature about the topic, which will then be connected with a relevant policy or technological development that relates to the topic. This approach aims to provide a comprehensive and detailed understanding of the condition, its manifestation, and treatment.

Condition Conceptualization

            Today, the core deficit of developmental dyscalculia (DD) remains unknown, but several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the conditions. These include the Number of Sense Deficit and Access Deficit Hypotheses (Wong et al., 2017). According to the number sense deficit hypothesis, the core deficit of DD lies in an individual's inability to represent or interpret nonsymbolic numerosity such as the number of objects in a set or the size or height of objects. Number sense occurs when students connect numbers with experiences in the real world. In students with DD, this differentiation is difficult according to this hypothesis. On the other hand, the access deficit theory posits that the origin of this condition is the inability to associate or link numbers correctly with the underlying represented magnitude. Wong et al. (2017) argue that neither of the hypotheses is superior to another because of the lack of evidence of their success and the heterogeneous nature of the condition in the affected population. A solution or explanation that fits one situation will not necessarily be successful in different settings. This is because different individuals with DD may have a common problem while at the same time facing different context-based challenges.

Causes and Signs

            Dyscalculia is a comorbid disorder often coupled with Asperger's Syndrome and Autism. The condition is also associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder since up to 60% of individuals with ADHD also suffer from learning disorders (Nelson & Powell, 2017). The same manner in which the core deficit of the condition is unknown is the same way its causes remain elusive of research. However, scientists have held that the potential causes have something to do with genes, heredity, and brain development (Fuchs et al., 2017) based on brain imagery and traces along with family trees. The condition can only be diagnosed through an evaluation, which is different for adults compared to children. Such evaluations are not just focused on exposing the condition but also on revealing strengths and other problems, such as reading or working memory. Signs of the condition also vary with age.

            In pre-school, for instance, children will have trouble counting, connecting a number to an object, and having difficulties recognizing patterns. For example, in the second instance, a student may struggle to connect the number three with a set of three cups or cakes. Among primary school children, common signs include difficulties in learning & recalling basic number facts, using fingers to count instead of advanced strategies, poor understanding of basic mathematical signs & symbols, and confusion in understanding interchanged but the same problem (like 4 + 6 and 6 +4). They struggle with mathematics language (Chin & Fu, 2021). Among secondary school children, signs include difficulties interpreting charts or graphs, trouble finding different approaches to a problem, inability to use multiple steps in solving arithmetic problems, and lack of confidence in basic items like speed, time, direction, and distances. Among adults, difficulties in counting backward, forgetfulness of basic facts, slow calculations, high likelihood of errors, and addition stand out as the default operator.

Types, Treatment, and Management of Dyscalculia

            So far, the core deficit of developmental dyscalculia remains elusive to researchers. Similarly, the causes are yet to be determined 100% because it appears there are several forces at play, including genetics, hereditary possibilities, and problems with brain development. In the same manner, there are no medications that treat the condition. Here, it is important to note that his condition does not influence a person's intelligence. Between 3% to 6% of the school population have the condition, and the distribution is similar across girls and boys (Wong et al., 2017). The manifestation of dyscalculia, aside from arithmetic difficulties, includes low focus or concentration, divided attention, working memory, planning, short-term memory, and low processing speeds. These manifestations explain why adults with the condition take longer to complete mathematical problems and are more prone to errors.

            Like dyslexia, the most effective treatment or management of dyscalculia is an early diagnosis. The earlier the diagnosis, the earlier the child can learn the necessary tools and habits to help them adopt new learning processes or approaches that are more effective for this particular problem. As a result, early diagnosis prevents learning delays, self-esteem issues, and the development of more serious disorders (Lewis et al., 2020). The diagnosis is also important because, as already explained, each person's condition is different from another's. Thus, there is no fit-for-all comprehensive diagnosis, and each case should be taken as noble. While the symptoms of dyscalculia are primarily the same, the condition can be divided into six types: verbal, prognostic, lexical, graphical, geognostical, and operational dyscalculia.

            Operational dyscalculia is concerned with difficulty completing spoken or written calculations or operations. While the person may understand the numbers and their relations, they struggle to manipulate the mathematical symbols and the number during the calculation process. Ideognostical dyscalculia is concerned with the inability to perform mathematical calculations mentally. Mathematical concepts are also easily forgotten, suggesting that a person in this category has problems with their working memory and short-term memory (Cárdenas et al., 2021). Graphical dyscalculia, on the other hand, refers to the difficulties of writing mathematical symbols. Children in this category understand the mathematical concepts but cannot read, write, and use corresponding symbols correctly and effectively. Often, the addition symbol is always the default operator.

Lexical dyscalculia is concerned with the trouble of reading and understanding mathematical numbers, symbols, equations, and expressions. Thus, a child in this category will understand spoken concepts, but writing is where the trouble begins and persists. Practognositc dyscalculia is associated with difficulties translating abstract mathematical concepts into real-world concepts. Children in this category can understand mathematical concepts, but they experience problems listing, comparing, and manipulating the concepts as utilized in real-world scenarios (Vigna et al., 2022). Lastly, verbal dyscalculia involves the difficulties of naming and comprehending mathematical concepts that have been presented verbally. Children in this category can read and write but experience difficulties when concepts are presented verbally.

Thus, one of the key reasons why dyscalculia for one person is different for another is the combination of two or more types listed. In essence, one student can have lexical, another can have operational dyscalculia, while in a different student, both types can manifest. Furthermore, most schools are not equipped with the right tools or expertise for early diagnosis. According to Fuchs et al. (2017), most students go undiagnosed and end up suffering unfounded labels like 'dumb' and 'unable,' which pushes some learners out of school or causes them to lose interest in education altogether. This makes diagnosis and treatment difficult. But it does not mean that management is impossible. Several strategies can be used to manage the condition. Examples include games within the family, such as cooking together, playing with the clock, shopping together, asking questions about prices, the guess pile, finding numbers, playing counting, and juggling memories by trying to remember phone numbers.

Literature Review

            Primarily, dyscalculia does not impact the intelligence of an individual. Rather, it is the mathematical aspect that suffers. However, mathematics is an important aspect of day-to-day living. Every day, people negotiate about prices, ponder on the shortest distances, wonder how long an event or class will take or how many friends to invite to a party. Thus, there are two core areas that the current literature review will dwell on: the impact of mathematics abilities and the impact beyond mathematical skills. Nelson and Powell (2017) performed a literature review of contemporary studies on the problem. While noting that the condition has not been sufficiently addressed by literature and little has been documented, they concluded that most studies often follow these two categories.

Impact of Dyscalculia on Mathematics Abilities

            In order to establish the difficulties faced by children with this condition and determine the most effective solutions, researchers have carried out different studies. For example, in their study, Wong et al. (2017), basing their arguments on the two hypotheses that explain developmental dyscalculia, intended to compare students' mathematical performance with DD that of low-achieving and normally achieving peers. Low achieving peers struggle in mathematics for other reasons such as attitude or anxiety but have nothing to do with DD. On the other hand, normally-achieving students do not work with mathematics problems. However, it does not mean that the group is perfect. The intervention for the study was nonsymbolic processing of numerosity and mapping of number magnitude across one year (i.e., from kindergarten to 1^st grade). Study outcomes indicated differential impairments in different subgroups with different levels of difficulties in mathematics. Normally achieving students did not show significant difficulties in nonsymbolic numerosity processing and mapping of number-magnitude. Low-achieving students experienced problems only in number-magnitude mapping but not nonsymbolic numerosity processing (Wong et al., 2017). On the other hand, students with DD experienced difficulties in both activities. The authors argued that the number sense deficit hypothesis is best placed to explain dyscalculia.

            In a different study, Cardenas et al. (2021) posited that the group of children with dyscalculia is heterogeneous due to wide variations in their working memory. The authors applied an arithmetic verification task during an Event-Related Potential (ERP) recording to test this variation. Cardenas and colleagues contented that literature has reported two effects so far in this aspect. The first is an effect, and the N400 effect holds a higher negative amplitude for incongruent than for congruent conditions. The second effect, the LPC effect, shows a higher positive amplitude for the incongruent than congruent conditions. Taking these two aspects into consideration, the authors aimed to compare the arithmetic process between children with good academic performance (GAP) and children with developmental dyscalculia (DD) based on ERPs and to explore the extent to which working memory (WM) varies among DD students. Thus, the study involved 22 GAP children and 22 DD children. A mixed 2-way ANOVAs for response times was utilized as an intervention. Outcomes indicated that the GAP group recorded more correct answers than the DD group, confirming that the DD group has problems handling mathematics problems. Further, the authors confirmed that there is a wide variation of conditions among the DD group, indicating that a solution for one student is not necessarily applicable to another.

            The core similarity between Cardenas et al. (2021) and Wong, Ho, and Tang (2017) is that researchers emphasize the negative impact of dyscalculia on mathematical capabilities. These results have also been highlighted by Nelson and Powell (2017) in the literature review in which they established...