Here is the transcript from University of Sheffield student Emma Woodrow's recent talk at the Sigma Being Inclusive Conference:

Dyscalculia

I have Dyslexia and Dyscalculia (and a few other neurological differences), they run in my family, inherited from my maternal grandfather but exhibited in different ways by various family members.

I also have a number of strengths in some areas - these also differ between family members. Fortunately as I am able to use these I have succeeded in successful study to post graduate level and worked in education, including teaching IT and special needs teaching.

From my own experience and from working with children and adults who have 'failed' educationally I would say that there are a number of interconnected factors which come in to play in dyscalculia, as in dyslexia. These include core deficits, core strengths, short term or working memory issues, long term memory problems and the emotional effects - caused by teachers, peers and family.

Dyslexia has become fairly socially acceptable and literary correctness has declined in social importance as we approach a 'post literate' society  so that it doesn't automatically link to a stigma implying lack of intelligence however even in this age of calculators and spreadsheets poor levels of numeracy still do. People are very ready to jeer at others who have no idea what the answer to '8x12' is just because they do. Most people have forgotten learning multiplication tables and imagine that they are a mental prowess.

Peoples' dyscalculia varies, just as their dyslexia does. Numeric ability, just like textual ability is not a unified thing - it just seems that way to people who have no areas of deficit. I have observed variations in people I have worked with but I can most clearly tell you how my dyscalculia is manifested and impacts at studying at undergraduate and post graduate level.

I think that there is a timing element to my (and others') neuro-cognitive difficulties which interferes with both learning and recall as well as calculating. If you have ever played with those toys where marbles or ball bearings are moved by a bucket system, or if you have used the Paternoster lift in the Arts Tower you may understand what I mean. If the flow (marbles or people) is not regulated to the speed of the process, in this case the lift system, it will not function efficiently. Some mental processes take too long and overflow the holding capacity of something I will call working memory, because of a failure in rote learning - supply speed and or working memory - carrying capacity. This is why the problem is worse under situations of pressure.

My dyscalculia

1.    Inability to learn number patterns by rote such as times table

2.    Problems with left / right orientation / reading direction - especially with decimals

3.    Difficulty maintaining in mind the arithmetic rule in use

4.    Difficulty remembering place in a number string so poor at transcribing long numbers

5.    Limited 'space' in short term memory - not able to remember number sequences

6.    Limited time for short term memory - if task cannot be completed quickly it just evaporates, especially when there are distractions - that is in a typical class room setting

7.    Difficulty reading numbers and symbols, that is, being slow at working out what is written with confusable items such as 3, Σ, 5, S, & and 8 or '.' and ',' - among others.

8.    Difficulty reading numbers in small boxes or when too widely spaced or irregularly spaced, mixed with words, not justified etc.

9.    Inability to do anything in more than one modality, as for instance when a different thing is presented visually from what a lecturer is saying

10.  Inability to write numbers down when dictated

11.  Emotional issue of fearing looking stupid or being told I am by teachers or lecturers for not getting the answer in the way or time that they demand

12.  As above for getting the answer right by a non conventional means and being accused of cheating.

I think that you will see from the above list that it can be difficult to function in a typical lecture situation without experiencing a good deal of stress. Some problems are related to the dyslexia or shared with it, others are distinct deficits. This is possibly why up to 50% of people with dyslexia have dyscalculia - one or more core number failures plus dyslexia which compounds the problem.

I studied advanced statistics at masters level at another university. Even though I explained my difficulty to the lecturers (there were 3) most of the teaching sessions provoked every area of difficulty listed, (except for 12). I could not keep up during sessions because I couldn't find things or work them out quickly enough as information was given in speech, not writing with different screens flicked between and shifting up and down and different displays to speech. PowerPoint slides were unnumbered so I couldn't find where I was to make notes or refer to my own computer.

If teaching styles are bad for students with dyslexia and Dyscalculia they are probably not good for the rest of the student body. This was apparent from the absentee rate. I tried to prepare for sessions by reading up and working through the material in advance. This failed as the two principal lecturers didn't believe in following the time table.

There was a third lecturer who clearly knew his material well and wanted to share his enthusiasm. Even though he wasn't a native English speaker and had a pronounced accent he was an excellent communicator.  He asked questions to check that people understood him - not to show them up or check that they were listening. He had clearly prepared written materials and worked through PPTs in order, following the hand out and the timetable, presenting one idea at a time in a logical progression. He was a neurologist. Unfortunately most of the teaching was done by the psychologists.

Finally I would like to point out that most issues with dyscalculia, for the majority who have it, seem to relate to arithmetic, especially mental arithmetic and when under time constraint and distraction. There are a good proportion of people with dyscalculia who are advanced mathematicians.  Unfortunately arithmetic is presented as maths initially and many who fail never progress with the subject long enough to get to a level of understanding. They have been so emotionally beaten down. It is quite possible that there is a mathematical ability which is to dyscalculia as hyperlexia is to dyslexia. There is 'advanced' number pattern recognition and learning, as exhibited by people with calendar and other calculator skills. This need not be an idiot savant type special ability but a special cognitive and neurotically attribute. It is a mistake to judge the few by the standards of the many. There are some otherwise neurologically fairly typical people who lack access to mathematical 'module' and clearly others who have problems with time functions. Some dyscalculics, members of my family included, have advanced spatial functions (as long as left / right problem isn't invoked).