Dyscalculia in learning mathematics

This article is about problems that children may have when learning mathematics, problems that are also typified in publications as ‘dyscalculia’. We consider two questions. The first: Is a child a dyscalculic if it runs into trouble learning mathematics? The second: Does a child have problems when learning mathematics because it experiences dyscalculia? In both cases, we must know what are the troubles that occur when learning mathematics and what it means to ‘experiences dyscalculia’. We consider these questions based on ‘Open Minded Research’ (OMR), especially the theories of ‘realistic mathematics education’ (Freudenthal, 1991) and the cultural-historical theory (Vygotskij, 1978; Leont’ev, 1979). OMR is context-embedded, and the researcher and child are always in discussion about problems that are meaningful to the child. Our approach is not based on a theory of dyscalculia; indeed, there is no accepted definition of dyscalculia (Trott, 1974). We prefer research – like OMR – based on studies and observations of the thinking activities of a child that experiences problems when learning mathematics.