by L. Merlino

Created on: September 25, 2007

One of the worse things you can do in an attempt to treat discalculia, is to pressure the student! I had dyscalculia as a child and so does my son - to a lesser degree my daughter. It seems to run in families. In high school, I could barely do simple arithmetic. Multiplication and division were real hurdles! My brain simply didn't wrap around the concepts and every math test was pure torture. Oh, the pain! My heart would beat like a drum, yet my brain would shut down!

But guess what?! In time, the condition can right itself. This, I found out first-hand. Though, as a teen, I'd figured out enough math to get correct change at the grocery store (or to calculate other necessities), it wasn't until I was in my thirties that I could even approach college-level or even upper high school algebra. Then, it was as if my brain opened up. Though, to this day, I can't say math comes naturally to me, I did manage to Ace some college courses in math, when I enrolled as an adult... getting A's on every quiz and exam.

The best advice I can give anyone who is attempting to teach math to a student who has dyscalculia, is to relax... how badly will that child need that math at that time of his/her life? Remember, Einstein was deemed a failure at math during his early years. Dyscalculia is not ever a dead end. Learning to hate and dread math may be more of a dead end though. If the love of learning hasn't been snuffed out, your worse math flunk may yet prove to be a genius at that subject. My love of learning was almost snuffed out - take it from one who's been there! You need to see the "whole picture" and relax; and know, the human spirit will "get" what it truly needs, when it needs it. Not everyone's brains are wired the same (or on the same schedule), and success in understanding any academic subject cannot be effectively forced. Let your student explore the horizons that life has to offer. In time, the most incapable mathematician may taste a passion to master something that only mathematical thinking can solve. It may be map-making, totally mastering Adobe Photoshop or a burning desire to compete in the arena of computer programming. It may not be your world to teach of, but his/her world to claim on personal, strategically innovative, and timely terms; without a "teacher" to boot!

So, if you have a student with dyscalculia, be a friend, relax! Grant your students the brain-pace to sample the world uniquely and apply themselves to that world without clamming up or shutting down in the process. If they can't wrap their brains around a concept, relax! Though they may resist even the faintest attempt at engaging them in math... in time, they may outdo themselves and your own ideals for them. But stressing them out is not the way.

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