Dyscalculia or Something Else? A Guide to the Overlaps

By Laura Lurns · Reviewed by Philip Weaver · Last reviewed 2026-09-30

Is it dyscalculia or something else?

It can be dyscalculia. It can be something else. It can also be more than one thing at once.

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 position paper says children with math learning disabilities do not form one group (Kroesbergen, Huijsmans and Kleemans, 2022). Their weak spots differ. It draws on group studies and case studies. Case studies often do not apply to other children.

One large study looked at 1,015 children (Kißler and Kuhn, 2025). It concluded that the line between children with and without dyscalculia is fluid.

No study we hold tests home signs for telling dyscalculia from ADHD, dyslexia, math anxiety or missed teaching. In our view, the signs below show where to look, not what it is.

Which signs are tied to number itself?

A German medical guideline summary lists signs of dyscalculia (Haberstroh and Schulte-Körne, 2019). Here are some of them:

• Linking a number to how many it stands for.
• Counting a set of things.
• Telling which of two numbers or amounts is more.
• Place value, and writing numbers down.
• Rules for sums that are not understood. Its example is 7 + 4 written as 13 or 211.
• Placing a number on a number line.

It judges mistakes by how varied, lasting and frequent they are.

One review drew on studies of children with math trouble, reading trouble, or both (Starling-Alves, Peters and Wilkey, 2025). In it, trouble with the size of numbers came with math trouble. That held with or without reading trouble. Trouble with the sounds in words and with naming things fast came with reading trouble. Its authors say how the two combine is still unclear.

So this review ties trouble with the size of numbers to math, not to reading.

Which signs show up in more than one place?

In the same review, trouble with some skills was "common across" math and reading trouble (Starling-Alves and colleagues, 2025). The skills were attention, working memory, self-control and speed. Working memory means holding things in mind while you work.

One small study compared children with ADHD, children with learning trouble, and children with both (Crisci and colleagues, 2021). The learning-trouble group had trouble with both reading and math. So the study could not separate reading trouble from math trouble. Executive functions were weak in a similar way in all three groups. These are skills like holding things in mind and stopping yourself. Its authors call the sample small and exploratory.

A study in China looked at 637 children aged 6 to 16 (Zhang and colleagues, 2025). Some had ADHD and dyscalculia. Some had ADHD only. Children with both did worse than children with ADHD only on several thinking skills, including self-control and speed. In it, word memory and speed were each linked to attention signs and to sums. It had no group with dyscalculia only, and it looked at each child once.

In the same review, math trouble alone also came with a weak spot (Starling-Alves and colleagues, 2025). It was memory for what is seen and where. So a memory sign does not rule out trouble with number.

The same guideline summary says people with dyscalculia "need much more time" than people without it (Haberstroh and Schulte-Körne, 2019). In our view, slow math is one sign that does not tell you which it is.

Dyscalculia and ADHD

The same guideline summary also looked at what comes along with dyscalculia (Haberstroh and Schulte-Körne, 2019). It says people with dyscalculia are more likely to also have dyslexia or ADHD. Coming together is not the same as one causing the other.

One large twin study looked at dyscalculia, dyslexia and ADHD together (van Bergen and colleagues, 2025). It used Dutch twins and their brothers and sisters, tested at ages 7 and 10.

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.

In that study, the genetic risks for the three partly overlapped. The study did not point to one difficulty causing another. The authors name two limits. Twin studies rest on assumptions. And the tests may have been too far apart to see one cause another.

Two large German studies looked at over 4,000 ten-year-olds (Czamara and colleagues, 2013). Children with many attention signs were more often reported to have math trouble than children with fewer. Only a small share of them did. Parents reported both, and math was one question. The authors say what lies behind the link is not clear.

In our view, trouble with attention and trouble with number can each make math hard. A child can have both.

Dyscalculia and reading

The guideline summary above names dyslexia too (Haberstroh and Schulte-Körne, 2019).

One editorial looked at how often dyslexia and dyscalculia come together (Moll and colleagues, 2021). It says the counts vary widely. They depend on the cut-offs and tests used. It names language and working memory among the shared risks discussed in research. It says how these work together is not well understood. It has no data of its own.

Another editorial looked at reading trouble alongside other difficulties (Moll, Snowling and Hulme, 2020). It says rates vary between studies but are "all clearly higher than expected by chance". It has no data of its own.

A word problem asks for reading as well as math. Read the same problem aloud. If the answer is now right, the reading was at least part of the trouble.

Worry about math

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.

In our view, doing better without a clock does not tell you which it is. Slow work can come with dyscalculia too, in the same guideline summary (Haberstroh and Schulte-Körne, 2019).

Missed teaching

In our view, missed teaching can look like dyscalculia from the outside. Teaching the missed step is worth doing, whatever else is going on.

What to do while you work it out

In our view, the first step is usually to work out what is hard. Our position is that a lost skill goes to a doctor first.

Ask your child which is bigger, 7 or 4. Read a word problem aloud and see if the answer changes. Write down when math goes wrong, and what your child does when stuck. Each of the first two checks is one sign, not an answer on its own.

Keep teaching the math either way. Memory or attention may be part of it. If so, here is our suggestion, from our own practice rather than a tested method:

• Cut down what your child has to hold in mind.
• Give fewer steps at once.
• Let them write the work down.
• Take the time pressure off.

The shared statement by fourteen researchers makes one more point (Kaufmann and colleagues, 2013). In its view, children close to the cut-off should be tested again within the next school year. That is a position, not a study.

Kißler and Kuhn (2025) concluded that every child who finds math hard should be supported. So we would not wait for a name before helping.

A diagnosis describes where your child is today. It does not predict where they will be after a year of the right kind of practice.

When to ask for help

Each of these is a reason to ask for help on its own.

• Little change, even with steady practice and good teaching.
• Math well below your child's other schoolwork.
• A teacher who raises a concern about math.
• Extreme upset about math.
• Complete avoidance of math.
• Worry about math that spreads into the rest of learning.
• Sadness or worry that lasts.
• A skill that was there and has gone. Our position is that a lost skill goes to a doctor first, not a tutor.

Start with the teacher. Say what you are seeing at home, and what you have tried. Beyond the teacher, the right person depends on what it turns out to be about. If the work is too hard, someone who works on that school skill. If worry or mood is the thing, someone who works with children's mental health. In our view, if you are worried enough to ask, a professional evaluation is worth asking about.

Any talk of hurting themselves is a same-day call to your doctor or a crisis line.