ABSTRACT
The approach to intervention advocated in this book is based on three foundations. First, my experience of working with an outstanding specialist teacher of dyscalculics, the late Dorian Yeo. She co-founded Emerson House, a specialist teaching facility for children with dyscalculia, dyslexia and other developmental disorders. Her methods were both innovative and influential. Many, perhaps most, of the best teachers of dyscalculic learners in the UK have been taught by her, or follow her methods. Alas, there are still all too few specialist teachers (see Chapter 11 on policy). Although Dorian and I came to dyscalculia from completely different directions, we agreed that a domain-specific core capacity underpins number concepts and arithmetic, and that this is based on sets and operations on sets. We also took the view that it was a deficit in this core capacity that caused dyscalculia. Therefore, teaching dyscalculics should be based on teaching sets and the relationships within and between the sets, before going on to work with symbolic calculation. This prescription will come as no surprise to primary school teachers.
