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Exploring Dyscalculia
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Exploring Dyscalculia
Learning From and Supporting Students



July 2026 | 224 pages | Corwin

Unlock access to mathematics for students with dyscalculia by creating an inclusive environment where all your students can experience the joy of math!

Despite being as common as dyslexia, much less research has been done on dyscalculia (also known as a math learning disability). Many educators are unsure how best to support students with dyscalculia, particularly when these students have challenges with foundational number concepts. This groundbreaking book offers a fresh, assets-based perspective on students with dyscalculia with an in-depth exploration of their mathematical thinking.

Through detailed examples, this book guides educators in understanding how to look and listen for the access barriers students may encounter and how to provide meaningful supports to help students navigate around these barriers. By taking this mathematical journey with your students, you will uncover their unique strengths, support them in navigating through barriers, and help them unlock their mathematical potential.

Features include:

  • Detailed vignettes illustrating the specific difficulties students face with quantities and symbolic notation
  • Practical assessment tools, including clinical interviews, to truly understand your students' mathematical thinking
  • Research-based instructional practices that blend student sense-making with vital access strategies
  • Actionable guidance for partnering with families to support mathematics learning at home

By honoring neurodiversity through these practical strategies, you'll create an inclusive environment where all your students can experience the joy of mathematical success.


 
Preface
About Language Choices

 
Overview of the Book

 
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Authors
 
Students With Dyscalculia Featured in This Book
 
CHAPTER 1: What Is Dyscalculia? Welcome to the Inquiry
How Do You Tell If a Student Has Dyscalculia?

 
Co-occurrence With Other Disabilities

 
Research on Dyscalculia

 
Proposed Causes of Dyscalculia

 
Limitations of Dyscalculia Research

 
Beyond Causes: Learning From Students

 
Learning From Emily

 
Supporting Students

 
Exploring Dyscalculia Through the Details

 
Embarking on Your Own Exploration

 
Summary

 
 
CHAPTER 2: Difficulties When Quantities Are Inaccessible
Exploring Lisa’s Understanding of One-Half as Halving

 
Exploring Lisa’s Understanding of the Shaded Regions as “Taken”

 
Research on Number Processing Difficulties for Students With Dyscalculia

 
Research on Number Development: How Processes Become Objects

 
Inaccessible Quantities Across the Topic Domains

 
Understanding Whole Numbers as Processes

 
Understanding Negative Numbers as Processes

 
Understanding Unknowns in Algebra as Processes

 
Impact of Inaccessible Quantities

 
Incompatible and Inaccessible Representations of Quantities

 
Procedural Learning and Forgetting

 
Persistence of the Process Understandings

 
How to Listen for Quantities as Processes

 
Surprising Similarities in Some Students With Dyscalculia

 
How to Use the Fraction Assessment

 
Embarking on Your Own Exploration

 
Summary

 
 
CHAPTER 3: Difficulties When Symbolic Notation Is Inaccessible
Exploring Porter’s Use of Notation

 
Research on Symbolic Notation Difficulties for Students With Dyscalculia

 
Research on Mathematics Learning of Notation

 
Inaccessible Notation Across Topic Domains

 
Inaccessible Number Notation

 
Inaccessible Arithmetic Notation

 
Inaccessible Algebraic Notation

 
Impacts of Inaccessible Notation

 
Embarking on Your Own Exploration

 
Summary

 
 
CHAPTER 4: Assessing Dyscalculia Through a Clinical Interview
Exploring Porter’s Understanding

 
Understanding Porter’s Strengths

 
Tracing the Bounds of Porter’s Understanding

 
Understanding Difficulties as Inaccessibilities

 
What Is a Clinical Interview?

 
Why Conduct a Clinical Interview?

 
How Is a Clinical Interview Conducted?

 
Preparing for the Clinical Interview

 
Enacting the Clinical Interview

 
Analyzing the Clinical Interview

 
Embarking on Your Own Exploration

 
Summary

 
 
CHAPTER 5: Supporting Students With Dyscalculia With Access and Sense-Making Practices
Research-Based Approaches From Special Education and Mathematics Education

 
Access Practices

 
Reading All Text

 
Clarifying Conventions

 
Providing Tools and Manipulatives

 
Removing Time Constraints

 
Giving Students Choice

 
Simplifying Quantities

 
Encouraging Students to Offload Information

 
Sense-Making Practices

 
Adding Context

 
Directing to Tools

 
Orienting by Referring Back

 
Reflecting Questions

 
Validating and Reframing

 
Avoiding Derailment

 
Asking for Justification

 
Attending to the Big Idea

 
Access and Sense-Making Practices in Action

 
Supporting Luna in Grade-Level Mathematics

 
Supporting Evelyn’s IEP Goal: Fluency With Arithmetic Combinations

 
Embarking on Your Own Exploration

 
Unproductive Practices

 
Telling Students a Problem Is Easy

 
Pushing Students to the Abstract

 
Encouraging Efficiency

 
Defining Success as Completion

 
Removing the Cognitive Demand

 
Summary

 
 
CHAPTER 6: Creating Access to Quantities and Notation
Deliberate Inquiry and Problem-Solving

 
Creating Access to Quantities

 
Whole Numbers

 
Operations

 
Place Value

 
Fractions

 
Conclusion

 
Creating Access for Notation

 
Remembering Numbers

 
Differentiating Symbols

 
Connecting to Meaning

 
Consistent Processes

 
Inquiry and Problem-Solving to Create Access

 
Embarking on Your Own Exploration

 
Identify Inaccessibilities

 
Brainstorm Possible Tools and Approaches

 
Introduce the Tool or Approach

 
Evaluate the Effectiveness of the Tool or Approach

 
Games to Provide Support

 
Summary

 
 
CHAPTER 7: Embarking on Your Own Exploration of Dyscalculia
Select a Student for Exploration

 
Analyze Inaccessibilities

 
Center Student Access and Sense-Making

 
Iteratively Designing for Access

 
 
References
 
Index