There is much research into dyslexia being conducted on an ongoing basis. Dyslexia is a neurological disorder that impairs one's ability to learn to read, spell, or comprehend the meaning of what they read. There is also research that suggests that some dyslexics have similar difficulty processing numbers instead of, or in addition to, words and letters.
Let us take a look at how numbers dyslexia or dyscalculia (as it is also known) affects someone. The first indication of number dyslexia may be that a younger student has difficulty identifying numbers. Much like with a word dyslexic, a child will inadvertently mix up numbers from 1-20, for example. They also may be able to memorize that 3+2=5 but they do not understand why that is so. Another symptom that may be present is not being able to recognize that there are 3 or 4 objects present without counting them as most people can. Short term memory may also play a part in number dyslexia. Since the dyslexic cannot remember things in the short term, they may have trouble with memorizing things like multiplication tables. Sequencing is also a key to learning numbers and math, this is another known difficulty in some dyslexic students.
Number dyslexia is real, and it means that the brain does not correctly process numbers. This can either be due to heredity, trauma, a combination of both or some other reason we have yet to understand. Some people seem to be predisposed to developing dyslexia.
As mentioned above, it has become clear through recent studies of dyslexic children that many of them have trouble with sequencing. The sequencing trouble over time has become known as number dyslexia. It is not something that can be cured but, it can be corrected if close attention is paid when anything with repetition is done.
As an example of one technique to help the student with dyscalculia, one parent would have their child work on sequencing by helping her when it came time to fix dinner. First, she would take spaghetti noodles out of the box 10 at a time and have her son count the noodles as they went in the pan. In the beginning, he was only able to get to three noodles without becoming frustrated. However, with repetition he was able to count to ten, then 20, then 50. It shows that with repetition even people that are affected by number dyslexia may be able to learn the correct sequence of numbers.
Likewise, another family would have their daughter count the street signs when they drove. In the beginning she would only count a few signs without an error but, as time went on and she began to remember the sequence 1, 2, 3 etc. It became easier for her to count the street signs correctly without error. That particular family gave up on the "numbers game" as they called it when she counted 220 signs on a family vacation. In their opinion she had won the game.
Unfortunately, dyslexia is no game. Having number dyslexia can be very disorienting and downright embarrassing. Children are supposed to be able to count from 1-20 prior to starting kindergarten and people that suffer with numbers dyslexia have a hard time counting from 1-5 if they have not been trained. There is no specific advice on how long the repetition work takes before it begins to take hold but it is evident that a dyslexic's brain can be trained with a patient and loving teacher. Just because your child has dyslexia, do not give up on them. This disorder has been compared to color blindness. It is not an indication of intelligence, just a difficulty in learning to count or do math.
