What Happens During a Dyscalculia Screening?

A dyscalculia screening is a relatively short assessment designed to explore some of the underlying mathematical skills associated with dyscalculia.

The purpose of the screening is to identify patterns of strengths and difficulties and consider whether a more comprehensive diagnostic assessment may be appropriate.

A screening does not provide a formal diagnosis of dyscalculia. It identifies possible indicators and helps determine whether further investigation may be beneficial.

What Does a Dyscalculia Screening Look At?

The screening explores three areas of mathematical processing: understanding mathematical language and concepts, recognising numerical patterns and sequences, and comparing numerical magnitude.

Mathematical Language and Concepts

The screening explores understanding of mathematical vocabulary and concepts.

Mathematics has its own language, and understanding mathematical terms is important when interpreting information, following mathematical instructions and deciding how to approach a problem.

Difficulties in this area can affect an individual’s ability to understand and apply mathematical concepts, even when they may have encountered them many times before.

Numerical Sequencing

The screening considers the ability to recognise and understand patterns and relationships within numerical sequences.

Sequencing involves identifying how numbers relate to one another and recognising the underlying structure of a numerical pattern.

This provides useful information about mathematical reasoning, flexible problem-solving and the ability to recognise relationships between numbers.

Number Comparison

The screening also explores the ability to process and compare numerical magnitude.

Numerical magnitude refers to an understanding of the relative size or value of numbers. Developing an efficient understanding of numerical magnitude is an important aspect of number sense and mathematical development.

This area provides information about how readily an individual recognises and processes differences in numerical value.

What Do the Results Tell Us?

The results across these three areas provide information about an individual’s underlying numerical processing, number sense and mathematical reasoning.

Rather than considering one area in isolation, the pattern across the screening is considered alongside relevant background information and the individual’s history of mathematical difficulties.

This can help identify whether the difficulties being experienced show characteristics that may be associated with dyscalculia and whether further investigation would be beneficial.

Does a Dyscalculia Screening Provide a Diagnosis?

No.

A dyscalculia screening cannot provide a formal diagnosis of dyscalculia. Its purpose is to identify indicators and determine whether a more comprehensive diagnostic assessment may be appropriate.

A full diagnostic dyscalculia assessment explores mathematical abilities and underlying processing skills in considerably greater depth. It also considers the individual’s developmental and educational history and the impact of mathematical difficulties on education, employment and everyday life.

Following the screening, the findings will be discussed and there will be an opportunity to ask questions about the results and possible next steps.

Where appropriate, a full diagnostic dyscalculia assessment may be recommended following the screening.