Mathematics for Dyslexics and Dyscalculics, 4th Edition

2Factors that may Contribute to Learning Difficulties in Mathematics

Different children bring different combinations of strengths and weaknesses to mathematics. These will interact with each other, the mathematical topic and the learning situation to create different levels of success and failure, probably with different impact on different maths topics. As Zhou and Cheng (2015) note: ‘Mathematical competence is a constellation of abilities which might have different origins. Disabilities in mathematics would be diagnosed with different screening measures and successfully intervened by using different approaches.’

Chinn (1995a; 1995b) has conducted studies on error patterns, speed of working, basic fact knowledge, cognitive style, auditory sequential memory and IQ, and has extended this to studies on children from two other European countries, with Dutch and Irish colleagues (Chinn et al., 2001). Bryant et al. (2000) list 33 characteristic behaviours of students with LD who have teacher identified maths weaknesses.

It is worth noting that maths learning difficulties are an international issue, for example Faber (2014), no matter what the PISA ranking of the country. It is a consequence of the normal distribution. The average scores may differ from country to country, but the tail remains a tail.

The deficits and difficulties interrelate and combine to form a large part of the picture of what the child brings to the problem. Each deficit may make a different contribution to ...