Could it be dyscalculia? A free guide for parents and adults.
Could it be dyscalculia? A free guide for parents and adults
Your child practises their number facts, but the same calculations remain difficult. Homework takes a long time. They may say "I just don't understand numbers" or become upset before a maths task begins. It's hard to know whether this is a temporary difficulty, anxiety about maths or a learning disorder.
This free guide from Redefini Therapies helps you make sense of persistent maths difficulties and plan practical next steps. Inside, you'll find:
What dyscalculia is, including the three areas it commonly affects: understanding quantities, remembering number facts and carrying out calculations. You'll also learn the term you may see in an assessment report, Specific Learning Disorder with impairment in mathematics, and why describing the actual concern is more useful than a label like "bad at maths".
Signs worth discussing, such as difficulty connecting number symbols with quantities, comparing numbers, counting strategies, recalling basic facts and understanding place value. The guide explains how difficulties can broaden with age into measurement, telling time and interpreting graphs.
Other possible explanations, because difficulty with maths doesn't always mean dyscalculia. Anxiety, reading difficulties in word problems, memory and planning, and gaps in the teaching received can all produce similar-looking results. The guide includes discussion questions to help separate these, plus notes for families of autistic children or children with ADHD.
What to bring to a school meeting, including specific work examples showing the question, how your child approached it, where they became stuck and what helped. You'll also find a checklist for a productive conversation covering the skills needing support, targeted teaching, progress tracking and review dates.
What research says helps, drawing on a 2019 review and meta-analysis showing that teaching the specific maths skills identified as difficult works better than training unrelated skills. Approaches covered include systematic instruction, mathematical language, concrete materials, number lines and word problem strategies, along with an honest look at the limits of the evidence.
Classroom adjustments, such as concrete materials, number-fact charts, squared paper, additional time or fewer questions, and calculators when mental calculation isn't the goal. The guide shows how to choose adjustments to suit the learning goal and test whether they're working.
Home support that stays manageable, with simple activities, questions to ask your child such as "Can you show me what you tried?", and what to do if practice keeps ending in distress.
What an assessment involves, including how history and direct skill assessment work together, why cognitive scores alone don't diagnose a Specific Learning Disorder, and a checklist of what to gather beforehand.
Guidance for teenagers and adults facing numerical demands in further study, work or daily life, with questions to help clarify what an assessment could answer.
Drawn from Australian education guidance, the Dyslexia‑SPELD Foundation and peer-reviewed research, it's designed to help you ask better questions and work towards a shared plan, not diagnose at home.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Reaching out does not commit you to anything. It's an opportunity to ask questions and find out whether Redefini Therapies is a good fit. Helpful to bring: your referral question, any existing reports, and questions about fees & availability.
What to Bring?
To help your testing session run smoothly, please bring the following items with you: Water and Snacks, Aids and Supports, Reports and Documents, and Comfortable Clothing.
Want the full picture?
This is just a glimpse. The complete guide also answers frequently asked questions, including: "Can I fail the assessment?", "Will I definitely receive a diagnosis?", and "Can my report be used for NDIS?"
Redefini Therapies provides psychological assessment and therapy for children, adolescents and adults. Areas of clinical focus include autism, ADHD, intellectual functioning, learning, executive functioning, emotional wellbeing and the practical effects of disability and neurodivergence.
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