Textruta: How can we recognize it? A typical example is a otherwise competent child that rather un-expectedly shows signs of serious difficulties of one or more of the varieties just described. It is rather frequent that children with dyscalculia have had, or have, difficulties in learning to read a clock. For anyone who has learned to read a clock, doing so usually appears simple. Yet reading a clock calls for many different functions. The first is to note the position of the hands. Thereafter one has to, after concluding how the hands are positioned, deduct where they aren’t and with the information at hand decide what time it is. Reading the time off a clock with hands also requires that one has good visual perception, a good working memory and an adequate linguistic understanding of time concepts. For many children who are subject to dyscalculia, reading the time off a clock with hands can be considerably more difficult than reading it off a digital clock, since the latter involves simply reading the digits from left to right. Reading 01.40 is easy enough. Certain difficulties remain, nevertheless, since there is no indication on the clock that this means twenty to two. That is a transformation one needs to do oneself. Difficulties in reading clocks are not the only problems other than those of math itself with which children with dyscalculia are faced while growing up. Many of them also struggle with time perception. This can be reflected in them having difficulties estimating the time which an hour or a day represents. This in turn can have a negative effect on their ability to plan and thus how they get things done generally. Weaknesses in time perception can in part be a matter of having difficulties with grasping the sequence involved in a particular course of events. We do not have a innate feeling for time. Rather, this is developed and maintained through constant practice. The latter allows us to gradually learn how much we can accomplish in the course of an hour, for example. Learning about such time-related matters is never finished, however, as our basic knowledge of how to cycle, swim or wash dishes is. The continual practice enables our time-planning ability to develop and be maintained. Difficulties in time perception often lead to serious problems when a child needs to plan his/her activities, such as studying or doing homework. Such problems are particularly obvious when school-related tasks are to be done not for the following day but by some time say two weeks ahead. One should nevertheless emphasize that many pupils overestimate the time they have available for various tasks without this necessarily meaning that they suffer from dyscalculia. Children with dyscalculia are not only prone to problems with time perception, but also have difficulties in imagining in what order various tasks should be carried out. Everyday problems for a child with dyscalculia manifest themselves, however, not only in the planning of homework and the like, but also in planning generally, even in such concrete situations as the child’s planning of how to clean his/her own room. Many children with dyscalculia have a need of a clear structure in their everyday life, although few of them, unfortunately, actively seek help in this respect.

Signs on Dyscalculia
Textruta: Signs & Facts Normal Intelligence Problems with Speed in Counting Problems with Watch and Time Problems with Planning Specific Problems 6 % of the population 50 % female

What is dyscalculia? │ Signs on dyscalculia │ Diagnosis on dyscalculia

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