Assessment for Dyscalculia

What is Dyscalculia?

There is ongoing international debate about the concept and definition of ‘dyscalculia’ as a specific difficulty relating to maths, however in 2020 the SpLD Assessment Standards Committee (SASC) provided new guidance and a definition of dyscalculia which states:

"Dyscalculia is a specific and persistent difficulty in understanding numbers, which can lead to a diverse range of difficulties with mathematics. It will be unexpected in relation to age, level of education and experience and occurs across all ages and abilities. Mathematics difficulties are best thought of as a continuum, not a distinct category, and they have many causal factors. Dyscalculia falls at one end of the spectrum and will be distinguishable from other maths issues due to the severity of difficulties with number sense, including subitising, symbolic and non-symbolic magnitude comparison, and ordering. It can occur singly but often co-occurs with other specific learning difficulties, mathematics anxiety and medical conditions."

Similarly, the American Psychiatric Association suggested in (2013) that:

“Developmental Dyscalculia is a specific learning disorder that is characterised by impairments in learning basic arithmetic facts, processing numerical magnitude and performing accurate and fluent calculations. These difficulties must be quantifiably below what is expected for an individual's chronological age, and must not be caused by poor educational or daily activities or by intellectual impairments.”

It is also acknowledged that dyscalculia often occurs in association with other specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, dyspraxia and/or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); although it is important to bear in mind that difficulties with underlying abilities such as working memory and processing speed – which are often seen in learning profiles linked to other specific learning difficulties – can also impact upon maths learning, and therefore maths learning difficulties may sometimes be attributed to the presence of a different SpLD and not necessarily dyscalculia.

Initial screening assessment

Maths learning can be problematic for lots of children and young people, and for varying reasons. Assessment of dyscalculia should always begin with a trustworthy ‘screener’ which looks at key aspects of number sense and other difficulties associated with this particular specific learning difficulty. As with any initial screening tool, the results are not intended or indeed sufficient to provide evidence for a diagnosis. However, they may suggest that further investigation would be appropriate and, regardless of the outcome, recommendations for further support and intervention will always be provided in an assessment report.

As maths-related anxiety is a factor which is always considered when assessing for dyscalculia, this would also be explored during the screening process. Steve Chinn, a leading expert on Dyscalculia in the UK, presents some interesting information on ‘maths anxiety’ on his website, which is worth a look if this might apply to you or your child!

A screening assessment takes approximately 1½-2 hours to complete and, if the results suggest that further, in-depth assessment is pertinent - in order to potentially pursue a diagnosis of dyscalculia - then this can be arranged at an additional cost.

Diagnostic dyscalculia assessment

In order to satisfy the professional body guidelines for a diagnostic assessment of dyscalculia, it is necessary to carry out a wide range of skills and abilities tests. It is also a requirement that other factors which can impact upon maths-related learning difficulties are explored as part of the assessment e.g. medical history, environmental factors, educational opportunities, speech and language skills etc. Furthermore, during a comprehensive dyscalculia assessment, it is usually necessary to carry out additional assessments relating to literacy skills and phonological awareness, to try and ascertain if another specific learning difficulty (e.g. dyslexia) may be at play, which could then be linked to the individual’s difficulties acquiring maths and numeracy skills. When you take into account that the following also need to be completed, it is not surprising that the whole process can take between 3 and 4 hours and is sometimes completed in two separate sessions:

• dyscalculia screener
• cognitive ability assessments
• tests of memory – including working memory
• maths calculation assessments – to include qualitive observations
• maths reasoning tasks
• numeracy/operational skills assessments
• worded maths problem tasks
• speed of recall test

Throughout the tests and assessment tasks, the individual’s ‘sense of number’ will become evident: this is a key factor in identifying dyscalculia as a specific learning difficulty.

As with any other diagnostic assessment, the conclusion of the assessment may be that the criteria for identification of dyscalculia have not been satisfied. However, as with all SEND Pathways assessments, recommendations for further support and intervention will always be provided in the report.

Please note that I only assess children and young people up to the age of 18.