Any resource recommendations for teaching students with dyscalculia and similar math-related learning disabilities?

[u/dancingbanana123]

I've always had a hard time teaching students with these disabilities. Not just because of the fact that they have a learning disability, but because I don't know what the right approach should be. I would really like some sort of resources, like published research papers or maybe books on the subject if they exist, on how to best approach these kinds of students. For example, I would like to have some more information on what exactly students with these kinds of learning disabilities are fundamentally struggling with, if I should be trying to work around that struggle or through it, etc.

[u/Dangerous-Ease-4783]

i think the core issue is often not number sense itself but working memory overload, like they cant hold steps in their head while doing the next part. so breaking things into tiny chunks with visual anchors helps but not in a childish way, more like color coding each operation step

there is a book called "the dyscalculia toolkit" that has loads of practical exercises, most of it is for younger kids but you can adapt the ideas for older students too. what age group you teaching

[u/dancingbanana123 → u/Dangerous-Ease-4783]

I teach college students

[u/Silver_Bike4343 → u/dancingbanana123]

I second this book, which is very science-based, at least working with the limited science that we have. The same author also has a book called Overcoming Dyscalculia and Difficulties with Number, which has a higher age range and gets into more advanced math. It's still not going to be as advanced as what you are teaching at the college level, but it could be a helpful jumping off point for you.

[u/quinneth-q]

Sadly, a lot of this stems from the fact that dyscalculia is simply not very well understood or widely studied. We know a lot more about dyslexia than about any other specific learning difficulty, and the others are kinda all defined with reference to what we know about dyslexia

For example, dyslexia is defined as a specific learning difficulty where someone has difficulties in literacy skills that are substantially inconsistent with the rest of their cognitive abilities. But we actually now know that dyslexia, while not impacting overall intellect, does often impact working memory (particularly verbal working memory) and processing speed

So, dyscalculia is defined as difficulties in quantitative skills that are substantially inconsistent with the rest of their abilities.... but, we don't know what else it might impact, because it's not very well studied!

I realise that isn't much of a practical answer, though. My only real tip is using concrete representations, like visuals, to make the maths seem less abstract. Even simple things like using colours for different variables when working with algebra seems to make a difference, anecdotally