Understanding Dyscalculia

Dyscalculia is a specific learning difficulty that affects a person's ability to understand and work with numbers. Much like dyslexia affects reading, dyscalculia affects maths. It's not about intelligence or effort, and it's not something a child (or adult!) can simply "try harder" to overcome.

It's thought to affect around 5-7% of the population, which means there's likely a dyscalculic student in every classroom. Yet awareness is still catching up. Many children go through school being told they're "just not good at maths" when actually they have a recognised, understood learning difference that responds well to the right kind of support.

Dyscalculia can appear on its own, or alongside other learning differences such as dyslexia or ADHD.

Signs to Look Out For

Dyscalculia can look different from person to person, but common signs include:

In younger children:

• Difficulty recognising numbers or connecting a number to the quantity it represents
• Struggling to count reliably, or relying on fingers well beyond the age when peers have moved on
• Trouble recognising patterns, such as odds and evens, or number sequences
• Difficulty telling the time on an analogue clock

In older children and teens:

• Persistent difficulty with mental maths, even simple calculations
• Losing track of numbers when counting or calculating
• Confusion around maths symbols (+, −, ×, ÷) or place value
• Difficulty estimating, whether an answer is roughly right
• Trouble remembering maths facts (times tables) despite repeated practice
• Getting lost in multi-step problems, even when each individual step is understood
• Difficulty with time, money, and measurement in everyday life

Emotional signs, at any age:

• Strong anxiety around maths lessons, homework, or tests
• Avoidance of anything number-related
• A pattern of saying "I'm just bad at maths" or "my brain doesn't do numbers"

If several of these feel familiar, it doesn't necessarily mean a child has dyscalculia, but it's a good reason to seek an informed opinion, rather than assuming the issue is simply about effort or attention.

How I Can Support Your Child

I hold a Level 5 specialist qualification in Dyscalculia and am currently working towards Level 7, alongside membership of the British Dyslexia Association. This means my support isn't generic maths tutoring with a few adjustments, it's built from the ground up around how dyscalculic brains actually process number.

In practice, this looks like:

1. Starting where the child is, not where the curriculum says they should be. We build understanding from solid foundations, rather than patching gaps in a system that hasn't worked so far.
2. Using concrete and visual methods before moving to abstract symbols, so number sense is genuinely understood, not just memorised.
3. Going at the right pace, with plenty of repetition and multiple ways of seeing the same idea, until it truly sticks.
4. Addressing maths anxiety directly. For many dyscalculic learners, the emotional barrier is just as real as the cognitive one. Sessions are calm, encouraging, and free of the pressure and embarrassment that so often builds up in a busy classroom.
5. Celebrating progress on the child's own terms, helping them rebuild confidence and see themselves as capable of doing maths, not as "someone who can't."

Every learner is different, and dyscalculia support isn't one-size-fits-all. Sessions are tailored to your child's specific strengths and needs, whether that's Functional Skills, KS2, KS3, GCSE, or beyond.

If you'd like to talk through whether this might be relevant for your child, I offer an initial assessment (Please note this is not a diagnosis).

Get in touch to find out more.