The difference between Dyslexia and Dyscalculia

What is it?
“Specific Learning Disorder” – both are lifelong conditions.

DYSLEXIA
Kids with dyslexia have trouble reading accurately and fluently. They may also have trouble reading comprehension, spelling, and written expression.

Preschool: delayed speech development, problems expressing themselves using speech, little understanding of rhyming words, difficulty with understanding (on oral level) the initial sounds within words, poor “sounding out” of basic words (e.g. c-a-t -> cat). Difficulty remembering the letter sounds, numbers, and days of the week taught in class.

School children: difficulty interpreting written material. Poor sequence of sounds (left for left) or reverse letters as “moving” across the page lose their place when reading across lines. Slight words are often confused when reading (e.g. there/where; that/what; a/the; of/for). May have problems with auditory/speech skills. This can cause problems with learning names and sounds of letters, linking letter shapes to sounds, and trouble breaking words into sounds. Reading slowly and making errors, difficulty writing down answers, following directions, slow and poor handwriting, and trouble with word problems in math.

DYSCALCULIA

Children with dyscalculia may have difficulty understanding number-related concepts, have poor number sense, and find it difficult to apply their knowledge to solve maths problems.

Preschool: find it hard to sort items by size, shape or colour, trouble learning to count, difficulty connecting numbers to objects, e.g. connecting the number 2 to the possibility of having 2 toys, struggles to recognise patterns. Repeats a number or leaves out a number when counting.

School children: difficulty learning and recalling number facts such as 2+4 = 6, poor understanding of signs like + -, difficulties solving math problems, poor processing of graphs and charts, lacking confidence in areas that require math, e.g. measuring ingredients in a recipe. They are not able to recognise words like “more than” or “less than”. When adding or subtracting, they start on the left instead of the right, and they struggle to carry the number over when doing these calculations.

Signs you may notice
They may perform above average in certain tasks but poorly in others.

Impact in the classroom and general life (dyslexia)
Impacts negatively on a child’s self-esteem and can make them feel inferior to their friends. They may feel embarrassed to read aloud. They sometimes struggle to find the right words to express themselves. They may have a tougher time understanding jokes and may need extra time to answer questions in the classroom. Auditory processing of instructions or lengthy questions may be poor. Slow and inaccurate copying of information from the board. They become extremely fatigued, as reading and writing remain effortful rather than becoming an automatic skill. This can lead to a loss in motivation and interest, and the child might seem distracted or “inattentive” as a result. Anxiety is also observed.

Impact in the classroom and general life (dyscalculia)
Negatively impacts on their confidence in class. Not sure how to manage their time during a test. They often take longer than their peers to work through math tasks, especially when mathematical procedures involve multiple steps and applications of basic number facts. This also leads to fatigue and anxiety. The child may become demotivated or may seem distracted as a result of not “keeping up” with their peers and with the curriculum.

The importance of early intervention
If your child struggles with literacy or math, early diagnosis is better. Firstly, rule out any condition that may be affecting your child’s learning e.g. hearing or visual problems. If there are still concerns your child ma be referred to an Educational Psychologist or other specialist for an assessment. There is no medication that treats dyslexia or dyscalculia, however, treating any co-occurring conditions (e.g. ADHD or anxiety) may be helpful.

Ways to help children
Special concessions or accommodations e.g. use of a reader and/or scribe in a separate venue, additional time, spelling concessions, exemption from mathematics, etc (these need to be applied for, following formal assessment by a psychologist)

Speech therapy: assist in recognising and processing sounds, letters, and words as well as auditory processing skills. 

Occupational therapy: assist with handwriting, letter formation, spacing, and visual processing.

Remedial therapy: focuses on application of underlying skills addressed in speech and occupational therapy. Teaches reading in a systematic way, using reading programs.

Technology: using a computer or tablet with spell-check in class may be more useful than an exercise book. Apps and interactive software e.g. TTS (text to speech) allows the device to “read out” a written document (or the child’s own typed work) allows one to speak (dictate) into the device, and the device “types” what is said.

Remedial interventions that break math down into manageable chucks, as well as other ways that help make math fun, like number and board games. Real-life experiential learning is extremely important. Children learn math concepts by going through a specific sequence of processes, therefore all new math skills should be taught experientially first, using real-life objects before proceedings to picture-level and finally symbol-level.

Dr Leoné Roux – Educational Psychologist – Glenoaks Remedial and Special Needs School 

Charleen Crous – Educational Psychologist – Glenoaks Remedial and Special Needs School