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Hello and welcome to the What in the World is Dyscalculia podcast. I'm Dr.

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Honora Wall and the What in the World is Dyscalculia podcast is sponsored by

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Educalc Learning. You can find out more about the math learning disability at

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educalclearning.com and you can also find out about

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Dyscalculia at the Dyscalculia Training and Research Institute which is www.thedtri.org

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and I'm going to start talking about that today, that DTRI website. I want you to go

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visit there because we got a grant recently to help increase awareness of

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Dyscalculia and what this grant means for us is that we were able to create and

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print and distribute some infographics with FAQs for teachers and for parents

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and some brochures, a brochure for elementary, middle or high school students

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with Dyscalculia and we were able to take those to some local schools and

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put some posters up in the local library, things like that, with that small local

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grant. We then took those products and put them on our website, the DTRI.org

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and that's where you come in. You can go grab these for free and they're under

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the FAQs page on the website down at the bottom it says get your free brochure

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and infographic here and you can click which one you want. If you want you can

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print them yourself and distribute them but you can also just grab that PDF and

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email it to a colleague or a friend or your students teacher or someone in the

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community who you think needs this information feel free to share them. This

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information is free for anyone and getting to the root of the information is

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free also if you don't want to grab our infographic you could make your own just

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go to Google Scholar and start reading the published research on the math

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learning disability and you'll see that that's where our information came from.

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We went to the leading researchers and found out what they had to say and then

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we compiled it. So it's a little more straightforward if you just grab stuff

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off our website but I'm a big fan of people finding out for themselves you

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shouldn't take my word or anyone else's word for anything you should do some

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research on your own and make sure that whoever you're listening to they're

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saying what the expert researchers are saying. Okay so grab that free information

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and it can give you more knowledge and you can share it with people you know

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and let's get that awareness out there. One of my driving passions is to make

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dyscalculia as well known as dyslexia. We are compared to dyslexia all the time

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but these two learning disorders are completely different and they really

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need to be addressed properly and in their own way. The relationship between

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dyslexia and dyscalculia also includes the relationship with dysgraphia and

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dyspraxia and the relationship with ADHD and autism because these are all parts

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of neurodivergent conditions. Different ways of thinking about things and

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processing information. That's why all of our specific learning disorders are

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grouped together dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia and dyspraxia.

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Dysgraphia impacts the way we write so taking thoughts from our our mind and

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putting them onto paper or organizing them into essays, into articles, into

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homework assignments. It's hard to get that information out properly and

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dyspraxia is moving within physical space so people that in the past have been

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told they were horribly clumsy probably not could very well have been a neuro

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atypical development but those two get even less coverage and have less

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research than dyscalculia the math learning disorder. So we definitely have

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work to do. You've heard me be on that soapbox many times but there is

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information out there and we've got some for free at the dtri.org. The second

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thing I want to talk about today is the fact that we know somewhere around 8%

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of the population has dyscalculia whether or not they've been diagnosed. This is

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just how the percentages run in the general population everywhere in the

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world and that means that if you are part of a school, a college, an educational

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agency, your students already have dyscalculia end of conversation they just

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do. The question becomes how much of your staff is trained to properly help

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these students? That is the real thing to talk about. We know students have

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dyscalculia and those numbers that 8% of the population I think it's even a

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little higher. I'm sure it's probably closer to 10% of the population and I

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say that because we know we're not testing, we're not doing early screeners

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and we're not even calling it what it truly is when we know there's a problem.

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So we're definitely under reporting our numbers. So we're looking at somewhere

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around 5 million K-12 students in the United States alone. That doesn't count

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countries outside of the US. It does not count college, age, students, and adults

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in the workforce. So in one individual school, it might be a very small number

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of students who are having the math learning disorder. Probably a lot more

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are having issues with low numeracy or a weak math foundation, all of which can be

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helped with using the proper accommodations and strategies that

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help dyscalculia. Although the reverse is not true, the things we do for low

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numeracy or a weak math foundation never help people with dyscalculia. They just

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continue to fail math all the way through and we have tons of evidence and

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research about that as well. So dyscalculia accommodations and strategies,

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that's a rising tide that lifts all ships but it doesn't work the same way. If

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you're not doing the right stuff for dyscalculia, you're never going to help

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students who have dyscalculia and that's why the training is so important. Now if

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you've been listening to my stuff, you know that I have training. You can find it

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on educalclearning.com and I'm here to tell you that there's some other

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great people who have some training too and you should be looking into them and

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seeing which company has what you need. For example, mine focus is a lot on

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classroom Gen Ed teachers and how do we keep students in their local public

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school if that's the right place for your family, some people home school or

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go to private school for many different reasons so not discrediting that at all

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but in that Gen Ed space, how do we keep students there and make sure they are

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successful and I do a lot of work for older students to high school. We're

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developing through the nonprofit arm some training and some support for

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college-age students and people in the workforce but that's a little farther

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down the line. There are other experts in the field who focus a lot on early

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childhood, who focus on early elementary, who focus on small group

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intervention work. There are also people who have manipulatives and programs you

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can use in small groups or in the classroom or you can go to Google

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Scholar. You can contact any of us with a doctorate who have done dissertations in

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this area, myself included, and we'll send you our dissertations. You can see the

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lit review and get the references that we used and read up on it yourself so you

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can get some training from a company that specializes in it or you can do it

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on your own but the main thing is you've got to get some training and get some

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knowledge. Your students already have this condition. Are you prepared to

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address it in the way they need you to? That is what I really want you to focus

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on. There's a million ways to get that information so please spend some time

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getting that together. You know I have some teachers who have taken training

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because their state offers a sabbatical year which I think is brilliant and I

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have not had that in the past in the states where I've taught so I think

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it's a great idea and I hope that it becomes more popular in other places.

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Before the teachers taking a sabbatical year they've had school districts or

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their schools have used Title I funds to pay for some of their training and the

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point of the year is that they do not lose their spot as a teacher. They do

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not lose their pension and the retirement plan and the years of being

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vested. They do not lose their seniority but they can take time and go do some

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extra training to increase their skills and then the other part of it is they

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come back at the end of the sabbatical year and make some kind of presentation

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or somehow share that knowledge with their school or their district and pass

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that along. So that's something to look into. I know that Washington State and I

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believe New York State both have programs for that. It might be district

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specific too. It's definitely worth having a conversation with your district

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or with your principal and see if this is something that you can take advantage

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of as well. And if you don't have that then it might be some training you need

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to do over the summer or it might be something that you can do over a break.

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For my courses and my training there are no deadlines and you can really have an

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open-ended completion. So every place is going to be different. You want to see

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what the requirements are for the training that you're getting. But the point

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is there's lots of options. Whatever your personal situation is you can find some

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training that's going to help and that's going to get you some more

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information. It's very rewarding. It's important. I would say crucial for the

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students who need teachers who have this training and also I'm going to tell you

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it's really easy. So once you know how to support students with

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dyscalculia you're going to see incredible growth on their end. That's a

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really nice part for schools and administrators to be aware of. There's

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so much growth hiding in your neuro atypical students. The people who think

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differently. The people who process information in a unique way and who

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aren't really succeeding in a traditional typical classroom mostly because of the

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way we pace out our topics and the way we assess. That's really where we want to

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look at making some changes. But these kids man once you get it right they are

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taking off. They're going to improve in the classroom and they're going to

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improve on their state testing. I've seen this as anecdotal evidence through

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students I've worked with for years. It's always true. I always see some growth

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on those external measures. And if you're trying to increase your annual

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performance it's hiding in that bottom 30 percent of your students. The bottom

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30 percent of academic achievement because in there you're going to find your

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neurodivergent students either with dyscalculia, dyslexia, dysgraphia,

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ADHD, high functioning autism. This is where your growth is hiding and you can

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bring out that growth and make some real changes with some very easy approaches.

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So get that training get the awareness get the free stuff that's out there and

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share it with a colleague with your administration with your students teacher

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shared at the nearby school or at the teacher education program at the local

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college. Let's just start talking to each other. If you ask a person just even at

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the grocery store oh hey have you heard of dyslexia nine times out of ten

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they're going to say oh yeah I sure have. Then ask them have you heard of

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dyscalculia and they're going to go what. So we've got to change that

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narrative and the way we do it is by sharing information. So that was a lot

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of pep talk today a call to action if you will to go find out everything you

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can about dyscalculia and then go tell it to someone else. If you have

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other questions or comments about the math learning disability please reach

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out to me at any time. You can find me at Honora at

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educalclearning.com or Honora at the DTRI.org. Check out both of those websites

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we've got lots of free information on both of them. Email me directly and I'm

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happy to answer some of your questions and give you some guidance and keep

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checking out the social media reels listening to the podcast so we can get

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this information out and expand our narrative. Thank you for listening to

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the what in the world is dyscalculia podcast and I will see you again soon.