Mathematics for Dyslexics and Dyscalculics, 4th Edition

Foreword

Steve Chinn’s newest edition of the 1993 Chinn and Ashcroft book Mathematics for Dyslexics is an important and timely addition to the dyscalculia or mathematical learning disabilities literature. As Chinn notes in his introductory chapter, basic and applied research on dyscalculia has lagged behind that of dyslexia for decades. The gap has closed somewhat in recent years, but children’s and adults’ struggles with basic mathematics remain relatively neglected. This seemingly benign neglect can have largely unrecognised long‐term consequences for students and ultimately the communities within which they reside (National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008), independent of their reading skills, cognitive abilities, or ethnic background. For instance, adults who have difficulty solving word problems that require whole number arithmetic, fractions, simple algebra and measurement have compromised employment prospects (Bynner, 1997; Parsons and Bynner, 1997; Rivera‐Batiz, 1992), and difficulties in other areas of life that require quantitative knowledge (e.g. Reyna et al., 2009).

These adults would be considered innumerate – either because of an underlying difficulty with mathematical learning (e.g. low working memory capacity), poor instruction, poor motivation, or some combination – and now include 20–25% of adults in the United Kingdom and the United States. Unfortunately, the path to adult innumeracy starts early, probably before the beginning of formal schooling (Duncan ...