Dyscalculia, the math version of dyslexia, demands more attention now that imaging scans have uncovered unique brain abnormalities in people who suffer from it, according to Sashank Varma, an educational psychology professor at the University of Minnesota.
Varma, along with two British colleagues, wrote a review article about dyscalculia in the latest edition of Science, a top-flight scientific journal. (The article was released at 1 p.m. CT today.) The brain disorder prevents even smart, learned individuals from performing basic arithmetic. While dyscalculia is lesser known than dyslexia, it afflicts just as many children and adults as the more widely known reading disorder, the report states.
The article notes there are people with the disorder who excel at geometry, statistics packages and degree-level computer programming. However, the authors believe this largely untreated disorder is causing a drain on student and worker achievement and on economic productivity overall -- in a way that dyslexia does not.
The authors lament that the U.S. National Institutes of Health has only spent $2.3 million on research of this disorder since 2000, but has spent $107 million on dyslexia research. They hope funding and research will accelerate now that MRI scans have mapped out the parts of the brain responsible for arithmetic -- and discovered unique abnormalities in the brains of people with dyscalculia.
Research has suggested that tailored education programs -- perhaps with the use of hand-held computers or other electronic devices -- can help people overcome the disorder.
