February 8, 2003

More often we heard from the parents that their children have the learning difficulties in any combination of the basic skills or in some applications area. Difficulties in learning can affect one’s ability to read, write, speak, or compute math, and can impede social skills. Experts snatch the learning difficulty as a disorder of the central nervous system and a variety of factors may contribute to their occurrence. So learning disabilities interfere with a person’s ability to store, process, or produce information, and create a gap between one’s ability and performance. Learning disabilities can affect one or more areas of development.

We know that many students with learning disabilities also struggle to learn mathematics. Math ability in humans follows the normal curve. This means that to some people, arithmetic is very easy, for most people it takes some effort to learn it, and a few people never get the hang of it, in spite of massive instruction and an enormous effort. Math-related learning disorders are known as dyscalculia. In its simplest term dyscalculia is a class of neurological disability that affects math skills that are not due to a lack of intelligence or improper instruction. In dyscalculia, students have trouble understanding mathematical concepts, recalling and carrying out mathematical procedures, and solving a range of mathematical problems.

But, unfortunately, the research on dyscalculia progressed over the past ten years at a snail’s pace; even then experts have identified a range of effective mathematics interventions for students with disabilities.

One of the reason of mathematical disability is due to the complexity of the field of mathematics that comprise one or many of the domains such as arithmetic, algebra, geometry or calculus. Moreover, each of these domains is very complex, in that each has many sub-domains and a learning disability can result from difficulties in understanding or learning basic skills in one or several of these sub-domains. Dyscalculia is not limited only to the subject of math. Some people experience emotional blocks so overwhelming as to preclude their ability to think responsibly and clearly when attempting math and these students are disabled, as well. They are also manifest in every day tasks. Sufferers of dyscalculia can have problems with planning, managing money, and orienting themselves in time and space.

There are many other rationale for the incidence of dyscalculia but they can be divided into two categories: neurological (visual and perceptual), and environmental. Visual processing weakness appears to be the most common cause of dyscalculia. To really be successful in math, students need to be able to visualize numbers and math situations. Fatalities of dyscalculia who have difficulty in sequencing or organizing detailed information often have difficulty remembering specific facts and formulas for completing math calculations. Some students just develop a fear or phobia of maths either because of negative experiences in their past, inconsistent educational experiences, or lack of self-confidence. Sometimes math phobia can cause as much difficulty as a learning disability. Students with learning disabilities also have difficulty with cognitive and metacognitive processes. Students who lack awareness of the skills, strategies, and resources that are needed to perform a task and who fail to use self-regulatory mechanisms to complete tasks will undoubtedly have problems with mathematics. Several researchers have claimed that students with learning disabilities as having metacognitive or cognitive deficits are only partially accurate. They note that many students attempt to use cognitive strategies, but the strategies they use may not be sufficient for solving the problem. For example, students may use numerous strategies with word problems (for instance, reading, checking, and computing strategies), but will not seem to have a working knowledge of strategies associated with representing problems. Problem representation involves converting linguistic and numerical information (via paraphrasing, visualizing, and hypothesizing) into mathematical equations and algorithms. Many students with disabilities find this task very difficult.

An important variable in math performance of students with learning disabilities is social and emotional characteristics. For example, it is believed that repeated academic failure frequently results in low self-esteem and emotional passivity in mathematical learning. The emotional reaction of some individuals to math is so negative that they develop math anxiety. This condition is believed to stem from a fear of failure and low self-esteem, causes students to become so tense that their ability to solve, learn, or apply math is impaired. Confused thinking, disorganization, avoidance behavior, and math phobia are common results.

Another factor that undoubtedly contributes to poor math performance among students with disabilities is poor curricula and instruction. Teaching in today’s schools is undoubtedly a difficult task: Poorly constructed texts and materials, coupled with the increasingly diverse student population, results in many classroom challenges. Classroom teachers are required to provide instruction for diverse student populations and are held accountable for covering the prescribed curriculum in a manner that ensures that most students in the class learn the content. Thus, teachers must decide whether to cover the full curriculum or spend sufficient instructional time on part of the curriculum, so that the slower students learn at least some of what is expected.

A very good example in this respect is of SZABIST (Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology). By keeping in mind the importance of mathematics in IT, Szabist has always given it a greater importance. Here all the students, no matter what is there mental capability for mathematics are given equal importance and attention. Here teachers believe in quality of education and that is why have done there best possible effort to reduce dyscalculia. To help students affected with dyscalculia, foundation classes are conducted before the start of any mathematics related course and also tutorials. If during the semester any student finds problem with it he or she can consult any time to its respective teacher. Other institutions should take SZABIST as an example and help affected students.

Moreover, language aspects of math particularly hamper learning-disabled students, resulting in confusion about terminology, difficulty following verbal explanations, and/or weak verbal skills for monitoring the steps of complex calculations. Teachers can help by slowing down the pace of their delivery, maintaining normal timing of phrases, and giving information in discrete segments. Such slowed down of verbal information is important when asking questions, giving directions, presenting concepts, and offering explanations.

Equally important is frequently asking students to verbalize what they are doing. Too often, math time is filled either with teacher explanation or with silent written practice. Providing enough time for instruction is crucial. Students with language confusions need to demonstrate with concrete materials and explain what they are doing at all ages and all levels of math work, not just in the earliest grades. Also, understanding for all students tends to be more complete when they are required to explain, elaborate, or defend their position to others; the burden of having to explain often acts as the extra push needed to connect and integrate their knowledge in crucial ways. Both younger and older students need to develop the habit of reading or saying problems before and/or after computing them. By attending to the simple steps of self-verbalizing, they can monitor more of their intentional slips and careless errors. Some learning disabled students have an excellent grasp of math concepts, but are inconsistent in calculating. They are reliably unreliable at paying attention to the operational sign and at sequencing the steps in complex operations.

Clearly, these students should not be tracked into low-level secondary math classes where they will only continue to demonstrate these careless errors and inconsistent computational skills while being denied access to higher-level math of which they are capable. Because there is much more to mathematics than right-answer reliable calculating, it is important to access the broad scope of math abilities and not judge intelligence or understanding by observing only weak lower level skills. Often a delicate balance must be struck in working with learning disabled math students which include :

(a) acknowledging their computational weaknesses;

(b) maintaining constant effort at strengthening inconsistent skills;

(c) sharing a partnership with the student to develop self-monitoring systems and ingenious compensations; and at the same time, providing the full, enriched scope of math teaching.

Teachers can also facilitate the learning of mathematical skills to students by adopting and modifying their instructions of computational skills. The teacher demonstrates how to solve the problem while verbalizing the key words associated with each step in solving the computation problem. Teacher can develop strategies for working problem by writing an appropriate mathematical sentence. Teacher must perform the necessary calculations, evaluating the answer for reasonableness, and writing the answer in appropriate terms. So students with math disability improve their problem solving skill through teacher-directed activities. Varying the size of the group for instruction is another type of modification that can be used to create an effective environment for students with math disabilities by a teacher. Large-group instruction may be useful for brainstorming and problem-solving activities. Small-group instruction, on the other hand, is beneficial for students by allowing for personal attention from the teacher and collaboration with peers who are working at comparable levels and skills. This arrangement allows students of similar levels to be grouped and progress through skills at a comfortable rate. When using grouping as a modification, however, the teacher must allow for flexibility in the groups so that students with math disabilities have the opportunity to interact and learn with all members of the class. In addition, teachers can isolate the source of difficulty and provide for specific accommodations in that area. By concentrating on the process of mathematics rather than on the product, students may begin to feel some control over the activity.

In sum, educators can contribute a lot in this area that calls for so much greater attention than we typically provided. There are many challenges embedded in the educational aspects of mathematical disabilities. Researchers and teachers must continue to work together to determine which curricula and instructional practices will bring about the best results in the shortest amount of time. Math learning difficulties are common, significant, and worthy of serious instructional attention in regular classes. Students may respond to repeated failure with withdrawal of effort, lowered self-esteem, and avoidance behaviors.

A standardized diagnostic test that provides more precise information on the counting knowledge, counting procedures used to solve arithmetic problems, ability to remember facts, and so fourth is needed. We need to learn more about the genetics of mathematical disability and the neurological systems that support mathematical cognition and that might be involved in mathematical disability. In addition, significant math deficits can have serious consequences on the management of everyday life as well as on job prospects and promotion.

The writer is a freelance contributor

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