Education December 7, 2018
Tips to help children with dyscalculia

Dyscalculia is a learning disability where the child will have difficulties in doing even simple mathematical calculations. Even though a lot of children around us have dyscalculia, parents and teachers ignore its signs and symptoms most of the time. In order to know whether a child has dyscalculia, a test can be done to determine this learning disability. Children with dyscalculia must be treated for the condition under trained and skilled experts. It is very important that teachers and parents work together so that the child feels at ease while attending maths classes.
There are many activities that can help a child with dyscalculia to improve their skills in maths. Undoubtedly, a child with dyscalculia needs a lot of support, love and care.
Most important thing is that, the parent of a child with dyscalculia must seek the help of a trained therapist to get the right remedies and treatment for dyscalculia. The need of each child is different. Only a therapist can help identify them. In fact, the child must get the basic things cleared first so that he or she can go to the next level. There are many activities that can be done at home to reach out to a child with dyslexia. – Minal Joshi, Occupational Therapist
Here are some tips that can help a child with dyscalculia
- Support their self-esteem – A child with dyscalculia undergoes a lot of stress and anxiety. Most of the times, they do not talk about it to parents or teachers. Hence, it is very important to support the self-esteem of a child with dyscalculia. Parents must understand that this learning disability can be addressed with right training. They might already have had a stressful class in school. So support them and make them feel better when they are at home.
- Praise their work – It is a fact that a child with dyscalculia will be unable to do even a simple maths problem. So when they do something correctly, appreciate and praise their work. This helps them a lot in concentrating more and trying to improve. Acknowledge their struggles and hard work. Praising your child will only help them do better.
- Help him/her identify his strengths – Chances are high that a child with dyscalculia might feel left out from his classmates. They might think that they are poor in studies and just cannot do well. In fact, they will have a lot of hidden talents and skills that can go unnoticed because of this. So make sure that your child is involved in activities, especially in arts and crafts. Let them explore their skills and know what they are best at doing.
- Lend a helping hand for household work and cooking – Parents can make things simpler for a child with dyscalculia. So for example, when you are cutting vegetables in the kitchen, ask your child to help you with it. Ask them to count vegetables or number of slices that they cut. This makes learning maths and counting fun for them while learning to cook. The same can be done while doing household work like cleaning and keeping things intact inside the house. Try and introduce them to numbers in a fun manner.
ALSO READ: Understanding the Learning Disability – Dyscalculia
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