ABSTRACT
It can be difficult to distinguish between dyscalculia and general maths learning difficulties. Dyscalculia is due to internal factors, a difference in the way that the brain is wired. However, some learners may have both internal and external factors at play, making it even harder to identify whether the learner has dyscalculia or not. These are some of the indicators of dyscalculia that one may notice. Being able to estimate an answer is an incredible advantage when doing maths, but learners with dyscalculia find this extremely hard. Being unable to estimate stems from magnitude processing difficulties in learners with dyscalculia. They have not developed the ability to associate numerical magnitude to a numerical symbol; 99 and 190 have no meaning in terms of numerical magnitude to these learners. Dyscalculic learners tend to cling on to procedures that they feel secure with, for example, counting all instead of counting on when adding two numbers.
