14 DAY TRIAL // While some people can juggle with numbers, and even invent theories that dispute knowledge hundreds of years old, others find themselves unable to complete the most basic calculations. And we're not talking about not learning their lesson for the next class either. Recent discoveries point at the fact that a medical condition known as dyscalculia, similar in some ways to dyslexia, is responsible for some people not being able to handle even daily calculations, such as paying for products and receiving their change.
Learning ability tests show that people suffering from this condition actually have an above-average IQ, but still find themselves unable to grasp the concept of numbers. Basically, the condition is best described by an innate difficulty in learning or comprehending mathematics, numbers, and anything else involving a combination of the two. People suffering from dyscalculia prove a complete inability not only to operate with numbers, but to visualize them as abstract quantities, which are in relation with each other.
This is the basic principle of mathematics – relating two concepts together and finding the unknown element. But even subtractions such as those that each of us does at the store every day are extremely difficult, if not next to impossible, for those suffering from dyscalculia. Usually, they are accompanied by other people while shopping, who make sure that they get back the right amount of change.
"We know that basic mathematical fluency is an essential prerequisite for success in life, both at the level of employment and in terms of social success," argues cognitive neuroscientist Daniel Ansari, a researcher based at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. He cites a British governmental report released in October 2008, which states that children suffering from the mathematics disorder lose on average £100,000 from their mean earnings, during the course of their lives, a situation that could easily be avoided if preemptive actions of detecting these children were employed.
At this point, there are very little things psychologists can do, as scientists have yet to agree whether the human mind is born with an “approximate number sense" (ANS), directly hardwired into the brain, or if our ability to master “exact numbers” comes from superimposing the knowledge we learn over an archaic basis, which we share with many other animal species. This debate is essential for understanding dyscalculia, and for elaborating appropriate measures of dealing with it from an early age.