The Dyscalculia Assessment

The Dyscalculia Assessment is a tool for investigating pupils' numeracy abilities. It is designed to inform a personalised teaching programme for individuals or small groups of pupils who have difficulties with numbers. The assessment was devised at Emerson House, a specialist centre in London supporting pupils with difficulties in numeracy and literacy. The bestselling first edition of the book, written by Jane Emerson and Patricia Babtie, was the winner of the ERA Best Special Educational Needs Resource 2011.

This fully revised and updated second edition features a brand new design, making the step-by-step assessment even easier to navigate and use, whether by special education teachers or those with no specific special needs training. The suggested script for each stage of the investigation that runs alongside the photocopiable assessment sheets, make this book an extremely user-friendly, accessible teaching and learning resource.

This book also includes:

• an introduction to dyscalculia and co-occuring conditions
• guidance on how to conduct the assessment, including tips on behaviours to look out for
• information on the equipment you need and how to use it
• instructions on how to interpret the results of each stage of the assessment and how to produce a personalised teaching plan
• games and activities to engage the pupils and reinforce numeracy skills.

The Dyscalculia Assessment is ideal for use with primary school children, but can easily be adapted for older students, and is invaluable for special education teachers, learning support teachers, educational psychologists and mainstream teachers keen to support students with numeracy difficulties in their class.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Getting Started
2. The Dyscalculia Assessment
3. Interpreting the Assessment
4. Games and Activities

Appendices/ Templates

Further reading and resources

"This book is essential to anyone working with children with dyscalculia, providing a comprehensive guide to individual assessment. It helps special educators to profile areas of strength and weakness in the different components of mathematics, connecting assessment directly to remedial instruction. The text is easy to read, and takes the teacher through the nuts and bolts of the assessment process from start to finish."
- Anna J. Wilson, Lecturer in Learning, University of Canterbury and Honorary Research Associate, University of Auckland, New Zealand

"A comprehensive support for anyone teaching children with significant mathematics difficulties of any kind. It provides an accessible assessment tool with a detailed guide to children's possible responses, based on current research about significant aspects of knowledge and understanding. There is guidance on what to do about the difficulties identified, using a structured approach to learning mathematics which emphasises understanding and reasoning, practical models and talk...This is an extremely useful resource for those working with underachieving children.  It combines a direct way of identifying key difficulties with a tried-and-tested teaching approach."
- Sue Gifford, PGCE Programme Convenor (Primary), Roehampton University, London, UK

"This book is essential to anyone working with children with dyscalculia, providing a comprehensive guide to individual assessment. It helps special educators to profile areas of strength and weakness in the different components of mathematics, connecting assessment directly to remedial instruction. The text is easy to read, and takes the teacher through the nuts and bolts of the assessment process from start to finish."
- Anna J. Wilson, Lecturer in Learning, University of Canterbury and Honorary Research Associate, University of Auckland, New Zealand

"A comprehensive support for anyone teaching children with significant mathematics difficulties of any kind. It provides an accessible assessment tool with a detailed guide to children's possible responses, based on current research about significant aspects of knowledge and understanding. There is guidance on what to do about the difficulties identified, using a structured approach to learning mathematics which emphasises understanding and reasoning, practical models and talk...This is an extremely useful resource for those working with underachieving children.  It combines a direct way of identifying key difficulties with a tried-and-tested teaching approach."
- Sue Gifford, PGCE Programme Convenor (Primary), Roehampton University, London, UK

"This book is a wonderfully comprehensive and clear guide to assessing and then remediating dyscalculic difficulties."
- Sue Lilley, Specialist Teacher

"Both authors draw on their extensive knowledge as teachers of special needs and have compiled a very worthwhile resource designed to identify in detail the strengths and weaknesses of an individual who may be struggling to learn mathematics..."
- Nasen Special