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What the Research Says About Math and Dyscalculia

By Laura Lurns · Reviewed by Philip Weaver · Last reviewed

This page sums up the math research we hold, area by area. It covers what dyscalculia is, how common it is, teaching math and math anxiety. Most findings name their study. Then it says what the research we hold does not show. Then it lists questions we plan to answer on later pages.

TL;DR

  1. This page sums up the math research we hold, area by area. Most findings name their study.
  2. A German medical guideline summary puts dyscalculia at 3 to 7 in every 100 children, teens and adults (Haberstroh and Schulte-Körne, 2019). That figure depends on where the cut-off is drawn. Different studies draw it in different places.
  3. One large study looked at 1,015 children (Kißler and Kuhn, 2025). Dyscalculia was set by a cut-off on one test. The study concluded that the line between children with and without dyscalculia is fluid.
  4. A German medical guideline summary looked at help for dyscalculia (Haberstroh and Schulte-Körne, 2019). In it, math-task practice beat training other skills, like working memory; tests and programs for older children in school, and for adults, are lacking.
  5. Math anxiety is not the same as dyscalculia. One review calls them separate conditions (Dowker, 2024).

What the math research we hold covers

This page opens one of the ten areas in our research section. It reports what the studies we hold found, as strongly as they found it.

This page covers what dyscalculia is, its proposed types, how common it is, and teaching math. It also covers math anxiety and overlap with other difficulties.

Read what a study does not show before you read what it found.

What dyscalculia is, and who counts

This part covers what dyscalculia is and how studies define it.

Dyscalculia describes lasting difficulty with number and calculation, out of step with the rest of a child's learning.

Fourteen researchers wrote a shared statement on dyscalculia (Kaufmann and colleagues, 2013). It suggests two kinds of dyscalculia. In the first, the trouble is with number itself. In their second kind, the math trouble all comes from something else, like attention. That is a position, not a study.

Price and Ansari (2013) draw a similar line in a review. They call the number kind primary dyscalculia. In their review, that kind is tied to a weak sense of number size. They call the rest secondary math trouble. In their review, it can come from attention problems or weak general thinking skills. They also name outside causes, like teaching. Its authors say research has been held back by too few studies. So has dyscalculia being defined in different ways.

One large study looked at 1,015 children (Kißler and Kuhn, 2025). Dyscalculia was set by a cut-off on one test. The study concluded that the line between children with and without dyscalculia is fluid.

Proposed types of dyscalculia

This part covers studies that looked for types of dyscalculia.

One study looked for types in the test results of 174 children with dyscalculia (Kißler, Schwenk and Kuhn, 2021). The two types it found differed in how severe the trouble was, not in kind. Its authors say the sample is small for this method.

The research we hold has no validated way to sort one child into a type of dyscalculia. Each list of types we hold is a proposal or a small group study.

How common dyscalculia is, and how much it is studied

This part covers counts of dyscalculia and of research on it.

A German medical guideline summary puts dyscalculia at 3 to 7 in every 100 children, teens and adults (Haberstroh and Schulte-Körne, 2019). That figure depends on where the cut-off is drawn. Different studies draw it in different places.

One study counted research papers on 35 developmental conditions (Bishop, 2010). Dyscalculia had far fewer papers than how common it is would predict. So did dyslexia. That count is from 2010.

Teaching math to children who find it hard

This part covers studies of teaching math, early predictors, and change over time.

A German medical guideline summary looked at help for dyscalculia (Haberstroh and Schulte-Körne, 2019). In it, math-task practice beat training other skills, like working memory; tests and programs for older children in school, and for adults, are lacking. It says high-quality trials are lacking for all age groups.

Early number sense predicts later math achievement, in Jordan and Devlin's (2023) summary of the research. That is a link over time, not a test of teaching it.

One trial taught number sense to kindergartners who were behind in math (Dyson and colleagues, 2015). The group that also practiced number facts kept an edge over the group that did not, at a follow-up test. It was one trial, with young children who were behind, not diagnosed.

One trial tested a computer math program (Kohn and colleagues, 2020). It had 67 children with dyscalculia, in grades 2 to 5. Children who used it gained more at sums than children who waited. Gains were larger in children lower in math anxiety and without a reading or spelling difficulty.

In one review, a child's pattern of math trouble could differ from one year to the next (Mazzocco and Räsänen, 2013). That change is about groups of children, not a promise about yours. It is not a reason to wait and see. No study we have tests wait-and-see as a plan for a learning difficulty. So we would not tell you to wait.

Math anxiety, and the one scan we report

This part covers studies of math anxiety, including one brain scan.

Math anxiety is not the same as dyscalculia. One review calls them separate conditions (Dowker, 2024). One large study looked at children who met a cut-off for dyscalculia (Devine and colleagues, 2018). They were more likely than children with typical math to have high math anxiety. Most of them still did not have it. The study could not show which one comes first. The research we hold does not show whether worry causes math trouble.

One study scanned 46 children in second and third grade while they did sums (Young, Wu and Menon, 2012). Children with more math anxiety showed more activity in the brain's threat-response areas. They showed less activity in areas used for working through the problems. Each child was scanned once, so the study cannot show which came first. In our view, the scan is a picture of a feeling, not a measure of ability.

Math trouble alongside other difficulties

This part covers one study of math trouble with other difficulties.

One large twin study looked at dyscalculia, dyslexia and ADHD together (van Bergen and colleagues, 2025). Each difficulty was set by a cut-off the study chose, not a diagnosis. In that study, a child with one was more likely than other children to have a second. Most had only one.

What the math research we hold does not show

This part covers the limits of the studies on this page.

No study of any Learning Success program exists.

The research we hold has no validated way to sort one child into a type of dyscalculia. Each list of types we hold is a proposal or a small group study.

No study we hold tests home signs for telling dyscalculia from ADHD, dyslexia, math anxiety or missed teaching.

The research we hold does not show whether worry causes math trouble.

We hold three brain-scan studies of math tutoring or training. In what we could read, none had an untrained group with the same difficulty. So we do not report what they found.

The research we hold does not predict where any one child will get to with math.

The dyscalculia research we hold says almost nothing about signs in teenagers.

Our rule is that no page says how your child will change by a given week or month.

Does Learning Success build on this?

Partly. We use one point from this page. Early number sense predicts later math achievement, in Jordan and Devlin's (2023) summary of the research. That is a link over time, not a test of teaching it.

We teach number sense, not the math curriculum. Our number-sense work is built to run alongside math instruction rather than in place of it.

In no case do we claim a study's result for our program.

No study of any Learning Success program exists.

Questions we plan to answer on later pages

Later pages in this area are planned. None of them is written yet.

The studies

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Pick one claim you have read about math trouble. Ask what was measured, and in whom. If it was a brain scan, ask whether anyone was taught anything.

”What to do tonight

Common questions from parents

What do the math brain-scan studies we hold measure?

One study scanned 46 children in second and third grade while they did sums (Young, Wu and Menon, 2012). Children with more math anxiety showed more activity in the brain's threat-response areas. They showed less activity in areas used for working through the problems. Each child was scanned once, so the study cannot show which came first. In our view, the scan is a picture of a feeling, not a measure of ability. We hold three brain-scan studies of math tutoring or training. In what we could read, none had an untrained group with the same difficulty. So we do not report what they found.

How do studies decide which children have dyscalculia?

One large study looked at 1,015 children (Kißler and Kuhn, 2025). Dyscalculia was set by a cut-off on one test. The study concluded that the line between children with and without dyscalculia is fluid. A German medical guideline summary puts dyscalculia at 3 to 7 in every 100 children, teens and adults (Haberstroh and Schulte-Körne, 2019). That figure depends on where the cut-off is drawn. Different studies draw it in different places.

Has math help for dyscalculia been tested?

A German medical guideline summary looked at help for dyscalculia (Haberstroh and Schulte-Körne, 2019). In it, math-task practice beat training other skills, like working memory; tests and programs for older children in school, and for adults, are lacking. It says high-quality trials are lacking for all age groups. One trial tested a computer math program (Kohn and colleagues, 2020). It had 67 children with dyscalculia, in grades 2 to 5. Children who used it gained more at sums than children who waited. Gains were larger in children lower in math anxiety and without a reading or spelling difficulty.

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