Supporting a Child with Dyscalculia

Helping your child with dyscalculia: what parents can do

Dyscalculia can make maths feel overwhelming — for your child and for you. The good news is that with the right strategies, children with dyscalculia can build genuine number confidence. Everything below is grounded in peer-reviewed research in mathematics learning and numeracy.

Disclaimer: The strategies on this page are drawn from peer-reviewed research and clinical guidelines. Always consult your child's school or a qualified specialist for personalised advice.

What is dyscalculia?

• Dyscalculia is a specific learning difference that affects number sense, arithmetic, and understanding mathematical concepts — not general intelligence

• Children with dyscalculia often struggle with counting, place value, mental arithmetic, and telling the time

• It affects approximately 5–7% of school-age children and frequently co-occurs with dyslexia and ADHD

Building number sense at home

• Use physical objects (blocks, coins, beans) to represent quantities — concrete manipulation before abstract symbols is essential

• Count everyday items together: steps climbed, items in the trolley, windows on a building

• Use a number line on the fridge or desk so your child can physically point to and move between numbers

• Play board games involving dice and counting (Snakes and Ladders, Uno) — game-based practice is low-stakes and effective

• Practise subitising (instantly recognising small quantities without counting) using dot cards or dominoes

Making maths less stressful

• Consider a specialised teacher who can provide multi-sensory maths support

• Never time arithmetic practice — timed maths tests significantly increase maths anxiety in children with dyscalculia

• Separate effort from outcome: "You tried three different ways to solve that — that's what mathematicians do"

• Avoid saying things like "maths is hard" or "I was never good at maths either" — these normalise avoidance

• Allow calculator use for multi-step problems so working memory is not overwhelmed by arithmetic

Helpful tools and strategies

• Check out these free resources and game ideas

• Use visual representations: ten-frames, base-ten blocks, and bar models help children see the structure of numbers

• Colour-code place value columns (ones, tens, hundreds) consistently using the same colours each time

• Apps such as Number Frames, Mathseeds, and Khan Academy Kids use visual-spatial maths approaches

• Graph paper helps children with dyscalculia line up columns correctly and reduces careless errors

• Teach multiplication facts through skip-counting patterns and visual arrays rather than rote memorisation alone

Working with your child's school

• Request a psychoeducational assessment to identify specific maths processing weaknesses (If your school does not have a clinical psychologist, you will likely need to contact an external one)

• Ask for accommodations: extra time, calculator access, reduced problem sets, and oral options for maths assessments

• Evidence-based interventions include Maths Recovery, Number Worlds, and Concrete-Representational-Abstract (CRA) instruction (e.g. Maths Australia or Numicon Intervention)

• Ask teachers to pre-teach vocabulary before maths lessons — maths language is a significant barrier for these learners

RESEARCH AND FURTHER READING

Butterworth, B. et al. (2011). Dyscalculia: from brain to education. Science, 332(6033), 1049–1053.

Ashcraft, M. H. & Ridley, K. S. (2005). Math anxiety and its cognitive consequences. Handbook of Mathematical Cognition.

Geary, D. C. (2011). Consequences, characteristics, and causes of mathematical learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 44(2), 116–125.

Fuchs, L. S. et al. (2013). Interventions for students with mathematics difficulties. Journal of Learning Disabilities.

Sousa, D. A. (2015). How the Brain Learns Mathematics. Corwin Press.

SPELD Qld — Australia’s leading learning difficulties organisation speld.org.au

Australian Dyslexia Association — parent resources, fact sheets, and screening checklists; dyslexiaassociation.org.au

Raising Children Network — Australia's leading evidence-based parenting site with free guides on ADHD, autism, dyslexia; raisingchildren.net.au

AUSPELD — free "Understanding Learning Difficulties" parent booklets available for download; auspeld.org.au