According To Wikipedia dyscalculia is difficulty learning or comprehending arithmetic, such as difficulty understanding numbers, learning how to manipulate numbers and learning math facts.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyscalculia

        In doing research for this post I came across an article found through the Shapiro library link called  Innovative practice - A numbers game: pathfinder.  Written By Shaw, Michael. The Times Educational Supplement 4975 (Jan 13, 2012): 10.   The article went on and discussed dyscalculia and informed me that this is a learning disability that about 7% of students suffer from.  Unlike its close relative dyslexia, dyscalculia is less talked about and receives little support in answering the question that would lead to promising solutions for students dealing with this type of learning disability.  However, one school in St Richard's with St Andrew's Church of England Primary in Richmond went ahead and brought in a teacher named Trish Babtie in order to look at the learning disability and come up with a solution.  Babtie, going on the research of Professor Brian Butterworth of University College London's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience.  Based on Professor Butterworth's research Babtie was able to develop several  games that would improve on the math skills of people who suffer from dyscalculia.  The game is software that can be downloaded and shared with students and classrooms all over the world who have students that need  help learning math with dyscalculia. 

           Children who used the software were tested before and after using it and the math scores went up for those who played the games.  Babtie, along with co-author Jane Emerson, also wrote a book that won an award for best special education resource at 2011's BESA Education Resource Awards called The Dyscalculia Assessment (Continuum) and for those interested in trying out the programs and learning more about them can go to http://low-numeracy.ning.com.

         Reading this article made me more aware of learning disabilities and how to deal with them.  I personally never heard of dyscalculia and upon further reading about the learning disability could see the difficulties of students in dealing with it and how their problem could go undetected and then they could struggle their entire lives with math if they never get the proper help in order to learn how to learn with the disability.  It seams like the best solution for me, being a future teacher, is to learn about these problems that children have in order to be better prepared in dealing with them appropriately and having the ability to know how to find the resources in order to better teach them, because the resources are out there you just have to know where to look.  Also,  I think this article is relevant to the class because it demonstrates a way that we can use technology as a tool in order to educate and solve a problem.
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