According to the National Center for Learning Disabilities, Dyscalculia is known as a learning disability that impacts a student ability to do math. Challenges that come with dyscalculia follow a student throughout their entire life, since math is relevant in the world’s day to day activities. Although, there are skills and strategies a student with dyscalculia can learn that will help them gain the skill they need to be successful (The Understood Team, 2014). Dyscalculia is more common than you would believe, it is actually just as common as dyslexia. “Kids very often have both dyslexia and dyscalculia. In fact, researchers have found that 43–65 percent of kids with math disabilities also have reading disabilities” (Eide, 2016).

There are a lot of signs and symptoms that vary from child to child with dyscalculia. More specifically, it tends to change and grow as a student gets older. Symptoms can show as early as preschool. This is when a student has trouble learning to count, skips numbers, struggles to recognize patterns, and can’t comprehend number symbols.  As the student graduates to grade school, they will typically struggle with recalling basic math facts, identifying mathematical signs, and may still use their fingers to count. In middle school and high school, the signs of dyscalculia is more prevalent. They will struggle with fractions, measuring ingredients, solving multiple step math equations, and cannot comprehend information shown on charts or graphs (The Understood Team, 2014).

There are certain identified factors that can lead us to believe why dyscalculia occurs, but researchers do not know the direct cause. Researchers believe that genetics can impact if a student will be born with dyscalculia. Studies show that it is typical that if one or both parents have dyscalculia, their child will too. Researchers believe that brain development can also play a role in the development of this learning disability, depending on the child’s structure of the brain (volume and thickness). They also have found that fetal alcohol syndrome, prematurity, and low birth weight may also affect a child’s chance of getting dyscalculia (The Understood Team, 2014).