Dyscalculia guides and resources
Everything on Dyscalculia.io in one place, grouped by what you need: understanding dyscalculia, testing and diagnosis, support at home and school, and free math tools. Every fact is linked to its source.
- 7 guides
Understanding dyscalculia
What dyscalculia is, how it shows up at each age, how common it is and how it relates to dyslexia, ADHD and math anxiety.
- What is dyscalculia?Dyscalculia is a specific learning difficulty with numbers.
- Dyscalculia symptomsThe signs of dyscalculia look different at 5, at 10 and at 30.
- Dyscalculia in adultsDyscalculia does not end with school.
- Dyscalculia vs dyslexiaOne affects numbers, the other reading and spelling.
- Dyscalculia statisticsAbout 3 to 6 in every 100 school-age children have dyscalculia, depending on the criteria used; in a class of 30 that is one or two pupils.
- Types of dyscalculia: the six classic types and how research sees them todayYou will often read that there are six types of dyscalculia.
- Dyscalculia examples: what it looks like in class, shops, games and at workConcrete, everyday scenarios that show how dyscalculia plays out in real situations — and which basic number skill sits behind each one.
- Is dyscalculia genetic? What research on families and twins tells usDyscalculia runs in families, and twin studies point to a substantial genetic influence on maths ability.
- Math anxiety vs dyscalculia: fear of numbers or trouble processing them?Math anxiety and dyscalculia can look almost identical from the outside: avoidance, blanking out, slow answers.
- Dyscalculia and ADHD: when attention and number difficulties meetDyscalculia and ADHD are separate conditions that often turn up in the same person.
Dyscalculia testing and diagnosis
A free online screening for children and adults, and what a formal dyscalculia assessment involves.
- Dyscalculia testFive short number games in your browser.
- Dyscalculia test for adultsFive short number games for adults who have always found numbers harder than they should be.
- How dyscalculia is diagnosedWho carries out a dyscalculia assessment, what happens during the evaluation, which criteria are used — and where a free online screening fits in before all of it.
- Dyscalculia ICD code: F81.2 in ICD-10, 6A03.2 in ICD-11Dyscalculia has an official classification code in both international systems.
Dyscalculia support at home and at school
Practical help: what works at home, short daily exercises and the accommodations schools can give.
- How to helpDyscalculia does not go away on its own, but the right kind of help makes numbers far more manageable.
- Dyscalculia exercisesShort activities with dice, cards, counters and a number line that practise the basic number skills behind dyscalculia — grouped by skill and age, 5–10 minutes a day.
- AccommodationsAccommodations change how a pupil with dyscalculia is taught and tested, not what they are expected to learn.
- Free online dyscalculia games for number senseSix free math games in the browser, each built on one of the number skills that children with dyscalculia most often find hard: seeing small amounts at a glance, ten frames, comparing, the number line, adding and taking away, and remembering numbers.
- Dyscalculia worksheetsFree printable math PDF packs with dot cards, ten frames, number bonds, number lines and place value, each with an answer key.
- Number sense activities for kids: subitizing, ten frames and number linesEighteen short number sense activities grouped by skill, with the age range and materials for each, plus how to run them and how to move from objects to pictures to digits.
Free math tools for number sense
Interactive tools and printables for the number skills that children with dyscalculia find hardest.
- Ten frameA ten frame is a 2 by 5 grid of boxes that holds up to ten counters, so a child can see a number as 'five and some more' or 'this many away from ten' instead of counting one by one.
- Number bondsA number bond shows how a whole number splits into two parts, such as 10 = 3 and 7, usually drawn as a circle for the whole joined to two circles for the parts.
- Place value chartA place value chart is a table with one column for each place in a number, so every digit sits in its own column and its value is easy to read: in 3,405 the 3 is in the thousands column and is worth 3,000.
- Subitizing trainerSubitizing is knowing how many things are in a small group just by looking, without counting them one by one.
- Skip countingSkip counting means counting forward or backward by the same number each time: 2, 4, 6, 8 or 5, 10, 15, 20.
- Math vocabulary wordsA free, printable math glossary for parents and K–5 children.