One of the struggles often observed with dyscalculia, is low memory capacity. I’ve often wondered if that is because memory for dyscalculics is intrinsically low-functioning, or if the memory issues are due to another cause?

This past week I read an interesting scientific study, “Developmental dyscalculia and basic numerical capacities: a study of 8-9-year old students,” by researchers Karin Landerl, Anna Bevan, and Brian Butterworth at the University College London and University of Salzburg Austria.

This scientific study offered an intriguing proposal.

“Numerical expressions do not seem to have the same meaning for these children, as is evidenced by the relative difficulty they have with the number comparison and dot counting. Failure to develop normal representations may account for the difficulty experienced by dyscalculic children in memorizing arithmetical facts: these facts lack meaning for them, or, at least, they do not carry the usual systematic meaning that make for well-ordered and accessible memories. This account would be consistent with the findings that there are no general short-term or long-term memory deficits observed…” (page 122*).

I was intrigued by this idea that the memory issues could be a result of numbers lacking the meaning that is required for our memory to properly record information. 

Before reading the study, I had a chat with a fellow parent about memory troubles and dyscalculia. We had both observed a noticeable change in numerical memory retention in each of our children since they had received numeracy interventions. These interventions were aimed at developing a foundational sense of number and quantity.

Their memory struggles, which were so glaring and frustrating in the beginning, had diminished greatly. We both wondered if perhaps the experience of finally having an internal representation and foundational sense of numeracy had helped our children make meaning of concepts that were completely confusing before, and this allowed the memory to work properly to organize and store this new information. 

The study's proposal seems to match our observations of our children's lived-experience.

The article suggested further investigation of this proposal, which I am hoping can happen soon as we begin to help dyscalculic learners gain a sense of numeracy. Perhaps interventions aimed at this meaning-making for numeracy will also positively impact memory retention of number-related facts, concepts, and processes.

* The study: “Developmental dyscalculia and basic numerical capacities: a study of 8–9-year-old students.” Author: Karin Landerl, Anna Bevan, Brian Butterworth. Publication: Cognition. Publisher: Elsevier. Date: September 2004 . Website: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2003.11.004 Website quote license purchased 10.16.2023.