What dyscalculia actually is
Dyscalculia is a persistent difficulty with understanding number itself, the sense of quantity that everything else in maths is built on. Plenty of children find maths hard, for all sorts of reasons, and most of them are not dyscalculic. A child who is might still count on their fingers long after their classmates have stopped, find it hard to see at a glance whether seven is more than four, or learn their times tables on Monday and have lost them again by Wednesday.
What gives it away is that it persists. Good teaching, extra practice and a lot of effort all help, but the difficulty keeps coming back in a way that does not match how capable the child is everywhere else.
Why it so often gets missed
Dyscalculia is far less well known than dyslexia, and it tends to hide behind other explanations. A child is “just not a maths person”, or anxious about tests, or a bit behind and bound to catch up. Some of those things can be true at the same time, which is a large part of why it is missed.
Maths anxiety deserves a particular mention. It is real, it is common, and from the outside it can look very much like dyscalculia. A child who freezes in front of a sum may not have a difficulty with number at all, or may have both, with the anxiety having grown out of years of finding maths confusing. Working out which is going on matters, because the help for each is quite different.
It also travels with dyslexia more often than people expect. If your child has already been identified as dyslexic and maths is still a real struggle, it is worth asking the question.
What the assessment looks at
I look at how your child understands and works with number. That means their sense of quantity, how they count, how readily they recall number facts, how they approach a calculation, and how they reason their way through a problem. I also look at the things around maths that affect it, such as working memory and the speed at which they process information, and at how anxious they feel about maths, because that changes how a child performs on the day.
Maths is often the subject a child has the most painful history with, so I go gently. I never put a child in front of a page of sums and leave them to it. We talk, we take breaks whenever they are needed, and I make sure they understand that nothing we do is a test they can pass or fail.
As with every assessment I do, it happens in person, usually at my garden office in Trowbridge, within about half an hour of Bath, Bradford on Avon, Frome, Westbury, Warminster, Melksham, Devizes, Corsham and Chippenham. Plenty of people come much further, from the Midlands, London, the Home Counties and the South East, and from abroad. I only see one young person in a day.
One assessment, not two
I do not separate dyslexia and dyscalculia assessments. If there are worries about both reading and maths, or if something turns up during the day that needs following, one assessment explores both, and you pay once.
I feel strongly about this. Families should not have to pay twice, and a young person should not have to go through two long and tiring assessments when one will do. It also gives a far fuller picture, because the same underlying difficulties often show up in both reading and maths, and you only see that when you look at them together.
It can make for a longer day, which is one of the reasons I set aside four to five hours and never book anyone in after. For a younger child we can split it across two shorter sessions instead.
Why a maths teacher makes a difference
I taught maths in schools for years before I trained as an assessor, and that shapes the reports I write. I know how maths is taught now, which methods a child will have met in class, and where the usual sticking points are. So when I recommend something, it is something a maths teacher will recognise and can put into practice the following week.
The report
You receive a full written report within two weeks. It says plainly whether your child’s profile is consistent with dyscalculia, what they are genuinely good at, and what will help in the classroom and at home. It meets every standard my AMBDA Dyscalculia qualification and Assessment Practising Certificate require, and I write it so that you and a busy maths teacher can both act on it.
AMBDA Dyscalculia, 23/AMD05008 · AMBDA, 20/AMB04046 · Assessment Practising Certificate, 26/APC05086