I am an online Dyscalculia tutor and can help your child wherever you live in the world. Dyscalculia is often called maths Dyslexia or number Dyslexia and it affects around 5% of the population. I have specialist training to tutor students who have Dyscalculia and am committed to helping those who have it. My students have ranged from the age of 7 to the age of 56.

What is Dyscalculia?

According to the book by Trish Babtie, The Dyscalculia Solution:

• A deficit in the core capacity to process numbers.
• Inability to compare and enumerate small quantities, leads to difficulty acquiring basic numeracy.

Dyscalculia is about lack of number sense, and understanding the relationships using numbers. It should not be mixed up with being “bad at maths”. Maths concerns many other topics but Dyscalculia is just about a lack of fluent arithmetic skills and basic number sense. The Dyscalculia spectrum is very wide. On one hand I have had students who don’t know instantly what the double of 2 is or 3+2 is, and on the other hand I have had students who thought they had Dyscalculia but really they were fluent with arithmetic and needed help with other aspects of maths.

A question I get asked is if students can overcome Dyscalcula and learn maths? I have tutored a range of students who had Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, other Special Educational Needs and a combination of these. Not only have they overcome their learning difficulty but once they are able to “see” maths using visual and manipulative (objects to move around) methods students feel a lot more confidence and at ease with the subject. One of my students eventually went on to do AS Level maths and a degree in Agriculture after being nearly written out of the education system entirely at a younger age.

My Dyscalculia students range from teenagers who are either re-sitting GCSE, doing a Functional Skills qualification or younger students preparing for an 11+ exam for instance. Dyscalculia is an issue that should be addressed at a much younger age due to the cumulative effect on self confidence and maths related anxiety. The use of cuisenaire rods and hands on concrete, manipulative objects is invaluable in tutoring Dyscalculia.

Tutoring a 7 year old with Dyscalculia using Cuisenaire rods.

How tutoring SEN students has been helpful to ALL my students

By tutoring SEN students I have learnt how the brain works for different personality types, which in itself is fascinating. I learn what the student’s concerns are, what his/her world looks like and how best to slowly help them build confidence in small chunks. Each student is truly unique, and brings a new way for me to think.

The understanding of Dyscalculia is approximately 30 years behind in the understanding of Dyslexia. It is being understood and solutions are being presented slowly and I will be putting links to resources and videos here soon.