Usually, a diagnosis of dyscalculia means involvement with a team of people. If your child is diagnosed with dyscalculia, it’s likely you’ll meet an array of professionals, including a Clinical Psychologist, Assistive Technology Specialist, Special Education Teacher, and/or a School Psychological Examiners.
Clinical Psychologists assess, diagnose, treat and prevent mental disorders.
Assistive technology specialists provide service to help people with disabilities choose and use assistive technology devices like specialized computer 10 software.
A special education teacher educates children with special needs like learning disabilities.
School Psychological Examiners are assessors who work with students in public schools, interviewing, observing, and administering and interpreting standardized testing instruments that measure cognitive and academic abilities.
About half of students with dyscalculia can be helped with remedies like rote learning of arithmetic or learning different strategies for arithmetic. Some schools of thought think that dyscalculia is something a child can “grow out of” as the brain matures (underdeveloped portions of the brain are thought to play a role in the development of the disorder). However, dyscalculia can become a persistent learning disability for many students.
Children and young adults (up to the age of around 21-26) can get free testing through their local school district.
Contact your local education board and ask for the special education office. You can also inquire through your child’s teacher or school principal; make a list of the difficulties your child is experiencing with learning and ask for an evaluation for learning disabilities. After the evaluation, the school will schedule a meeting with you and an IEP representative to discuss either an IEP or 504 plan.
The IEP is a program that ensures a school child with an identified disability under the law receives specialized education services such as occupational therapy.
With a 504 plan students don’t require specialized instruction and do not necessarily have to performing below grade level. The 504 plans are also easier to get than an IEP. In general, if your child is diagnosed with dyscalculia, either by a school psychologist or outside professional, that’s generally all they need to receive 504 accommodations.
L. Kosc, of Bratislava, advocates in his Slovak "Psychology of Mathematics Abilities" , the use of a battery of 3 tests which diagnose disorders of math functioning while differentiating from educational deprivation, scholastic deficiencies, organically caused difficulties, and "retardation in school knowledge."
Standardized tests like the Wechsler Intelligence scales and tests of math ability are used to compare individual performance with majority peer group performance. The formula for calculating "Math IQ" is Math Q= Math Age divided by Chronological Age x 100. A score of 1-2 standard deviations below the mean (middle) score of the group is considered "deficient." A score of 70-75 is extremely deficient (CTLM 1986, 49-50).
A dyscalculia diagnosis in pre-school age children can be made when a child cannot "perform simple quantitative operations" that should be "routine at his age (CTLM 1986, 50)."Developmental dyscalculia is present when a marked disproportion exists between the student's developmental level and his general cognitive ability, on measurements of specific math abilities (CTLM 1986, 67).