Unraveling 'math dyslexia'
September 24, 2008Although school has been back for less than a month, it is likely that many children are already experiencing frustration and confusion in math class. Research at The University of Western Ontario in London, Canada could change the way we view math difficulties and how we assist children who face those problems.
Daniel Ansari is an assistant professor and Canada Research Chair in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at Western. He is using brain imaging to understand how children develop math skills, and what kind of brain development is associated with those skills.
Research shows that many children who experience mathematical difficulties have developmental dyscalculia – a syndrome that is similar to dyslexia, a learning disability that affects a child's ability to read. Children with dyscalculia often have difficulty understanding numerical quantity. For example, they find it difficult to connect abstract symbols, such as a number, to the numerical magnitude it represents. They can't see the connection, for instance, between five fingers and the number '5'. This is similar to children with dyslexia who have difficulty connecting sounds with letters. In a recent study Ansari and graduate student Ian Holloway showed that children who are better at connecting numerical symbols and magnitudes are also those who have higher math scores. A report of this research is forthcoming in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
Ansari says parents and teachers are often not aware that developmental dyscalculia is just as common as developmental dyslexia and is frequently related to dyslexia. There is a great need to increase public awareness of developmental dyscalculia.
"Research shows that many children have both dyslexia and dyscalculia. We are now exploring further the question of exactly what brain differences exist between those who have just math problems and those who have both math and reading difficulties," says Ansari.
Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to study the brains of children with math difficulties, Ansari says that it becomes clear that children with developmental dyscalculia show atypical activation patterns in a part of the brain called the parietal cortex.
This research holds tremendous promise for people who, in the past, had simply accepted that they are 'not good at math.' Understanding the causes and brain correlates of dyscalculia may help to design remediation tools to improve the lives of children and adults with the syndrome.
"We have some cultural biases in North America around math skills," says Ansari. "We think that people who are good at math must be exceptionally intelligent, and even more dismaying and damaging, we have an attitude that being bad at math is socially acceptable. People who would never dream of telling others they are unable to read, will proclaim publicly they flunked math."
Ansari says that math skills are hugely important to life success and children who suffer math difficulties may avoid careers that, with help, might be a great fit for them.
Ansari is the recipient of an Early Researcher Award grant from the Ontario government and a CIHR grant. Ansari recently reviewed existing research in this field for the April edition of the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience, and he hopes that news of this important research will also reach parents, teachers and individuals.
An article by Ansari entitled "The Brain Goes to School: Strengthening the Education-Neuroscience Connection," will be published in the upcoming Education Canada, the magazine of the Canadian Education Association. In the article Ansari says technological advances such as fMRI have provided unprecedented insights into the working of the human brain.
"A teacher who understands brain structure and function will be better equipped to interpret children's behaviours, their strengths and weaknesses, from a scientific point of view, and this will in turn influence how they teach," says Ansari.
Source: University of Western Ontario
Jul 16, 2009 |
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Dyslexia has to do with communication between the sight and hearing centers of the brain, whereas dyscalculia only relates to sight as a sensing organ. Where one requires compensation, the other may only require re-education.
Perhaps we should examine our accepted methods of fundamental math education.
Stupidity, too, lies in the eye of the beholder.
Ever heard of Kim Peek? Just plain stupid?
Stupidity is easily measured and pretty damn obvious (at least to others).
This is obviously an attempt to prove your sense of superiority (not only are you not stupid, but you can spot it a mile away).
Intelligence or its converse; stupidity or lack of intelligence is, in fact, not easily measured. Disputes over intelligence testing are still continuing today.
What is easily measured and immediately apparent is a persons level of education. Highly educated idiots appear more intelligent than they are. Yet uneducated geniuses can appear down right idiotic.
What is important however is that a person with dyslexia or/and dyscalculia can be retaught or taught to manage their learning difficulty / disability. While a stupid person would not learn to overcome their dyslexia or dyscalculia.
It would be damaging to label a person as stupid because they have any learning obstacles.
It is true that a parent would find it easier to accept that their child has a learning disability than to accept that their child is "just plain stupid", because the parent cares about their child.
The parent is entirely correct to rather believe this, because error can be made in diagnosing stupidity (especially by people who consider themselves superior).
Whether the child is truly stupid or not is less important than ensuring that the child gets whatever treatment/therapy may help.
When a person/child is prematurely labeled as stupid, it often results that s/he is not given any treatment/therapy, because everyone says "There is no cure for stupidity."
But this is not entirely true, because even stupid people will learn (albeit slowly and limited)Teaching the stupid will not turn them into geniuses but it will permit them to enjoy a better quality of life.
For the child that appears stupid, but is actually poorly educated and can learn to manage their learning disability. The assumption that they are stupid will severely hamper their "recovery" overcoming their learning disability.
Self-confidence is one of the major factors that affect a persons ability to learn.
It would be inadvisable (child abuse?) to damage a child's self-confidence in learning by incorrectly labeling them as stupid. Further more it serves no purpose to apply any such label. A child unlike an adult has little or no capacity to question or edit these labels and will generally accept them as truth.
I as a parent and educator would much rather have every treatment and therapy for a child before labeling them as stupid, because it is the reasonable alternative to mentally damaging a person for life.