When Math Struggles Are Mistakenly Attributed to ADHD
When my oldest daughter was in the fourth grade, she was more hyperactive, impulsive, and fidgety at school than was typical for her age. At home I noticed that she had trouble starting certain homework assignments, organizing her time, and staying focused specifically on math work. She seemed to make careless mistakes and had trouble knowing what to do next in multistep math problems.
These executive function issues could resemble those related to ADHD.
Yet for my daughter, ADHD was not the cause of her struggles. The reason for her lack of focus, seemingly careless mistakes, and distractibility was that she was dyscalculic.
In the spring of grade four she was diagnosed with A Specific Learning Disability with an Impairment in Math, also known as Dyscalculia. Dyscalculia is a neurological difference which makes it difficult to understand and work with numbers and quantities. It is more common than people imagine, impacting 3-8% of the worldwide population of both children and adults.
Because ADHD is currently more recognized than dyscalculia, struggles like these and other challenges can easily be misinterpreted as signs of ADHD instead of dyscalculia, especially if a student is already recognized as being ADHD.
Scenarios that Appear to be Signs of ADHD
Here are a few student scenarios which resemble that of ADHD, but could also be signs a student is dyscalculic:
While working on math, history, or science worksheets, the student fidgets, glances around at peers, or distracts themselves with nearby objects.
When solving multi-step work, such as story problems or long division, the student struggles to remember the next step.
The student makes obvious or seemingly careless mistakes on homework. They swap numbers, leave out digits, or become confused over which math function they are performing. It can appear they are going too quickly or not paying attention.
The student guesses at answers or draws unrealistic conclusions. Their estimations of dates, numbers or quantities are wildly inaccurate.
The student actively avoids flashcards or rote practices which are meant to help with the memorization of math facts or times tables. They may claim these activities are boring.
The student struggles to organize tasks within allotted time. They seem unable to estimate how long a task will take or if they have enough time to complete something. They may ask, “What time is it?” repeatedly throughout the day.
These are just a few examples of where a student’s apparent lack of focus or seemingly distracted behavior could actually be caused by dyscalculia, rather than the the suspected ADHD. Or the struggles could be exasperated by both ADHD and dyscalculia.
Determining the Difference
How can we determine the difference between math challenges related to ADHD and those related to dyscalculia?
One might assume that dyscalculia could be identified by whether the struggles take place only in math class. But this does not consider the numerous areas where dyscalculia impacts other classes and everyday tasks involving numbers and quantities.
Other classes such as history, social studies, and the sciences require the understanding and memorization of dates, times, quantities, measurements, and graphs/spreadsheets. Last year, half of my daughter’s social studies quiz involved the recall of number-related facts.
Another area impacted by dyscalculia is the understanding of time, reading clocks, and calculating lengths of time. These are anxiety-producing tasks for dyscalculics which occur repeatedly throughout the day.
To determine if ADHD or dyscalculia are the cause of math struggles, we need to explore the deeper reasons behind a student’s challenges with number-related tasks and first determine if they may be dyscalculic.
Numeracy screeners must explore the overall sense of numeracy, and not just assess the number of correctly answered math problems. Some of the questions that need to be explored are: How is the overall sense and understanding for numbers and quantities? Does the student understand numbers as groups and sets, or do they simply count on in ones? Are they able to subitize, see a small quantity and know how many there are without counting? How is their understanding of the relationship between numbers 1-10 and with place value? How does a student arrive at their answers, what methods do they use?
Negative Impact of Missing a Dyscalculia Diagnosis
It is critical that we determine if a student is dyscalculic because the unaddressed needs of dyscalculic learners can lead to limited life options and severely impact mental health.
Dyscalculic students are usually aware of their difficulties with concepts everyone else seems to easily grasp, confused as to why they struggle, and often incorrectly assume they are defective in some way. When the adults in their life mistakenly attribute the difficulties to ADHD and other causes, it means they don’t get the help they desperately need. This fuels the growth of negative beliefs about themselves, their intelligence, and abilities.
I recently spoke with a middle school teacher who described a student as the class clown, always goofing off, unable to stay focused on his work. He was likely ADHD, but judging by the specific difficulties the teacher described, it was also evident to me that he was likely dyscalculic as well.
By high school, it can often feel too late. My dyscalculic daughter, now a freshman, weekly describes to me her fellow students struggling in Algebra class. These students are already shut down, crippled by negative beliefs and ongoing undiagnosed challenges. They do not turn in their work on time, if at all. They receive low grades, even having to retake classes. One student said they saw no reason to try and spent the majority of class with their head down on the desk.
Awareness and Effective Supports
These students don’t need help to focus or stay on-task. In fact, the supports offered for ADHD students are not effective supports for dyscalculic learners struggling in math. We need to recognize and assess for dyscalculia as well as ADHD, so the student’s situation can be identified, and we can provide more adequate supports that they need to succeed both in school and in life.
Dyscalculic learners need specific teaching methods that target the development of a foundational sense of numbers and quantity, and the relationship between numbers. They need a meaningful and effective math education to help fill in the gaps of concepts not innately understood by the dyscalculic mind. And they need acknowledgement and understanding for how their brilliant and dyscalculic minds work best.
Our first step in response to this situation is to actively grow our awareness for dyscalculia. Then we can begin to recognize and effectively support dyscalculic individuals in our schools and in our communities.
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