Development and standardization of a dyscalculia screening tool for secondary school.

Dyscalculia is a specific learning disorder in mathematics, affecting individual's basic numerical skills, memorisation of arithmetic facts, fluent calculation, and accurate math reasoning. These difficulties have detrimental effects on a child's educational achievement, as well as their further life prospects, including employment, further education, and mental health. Despite dyscalculia affecting 3-6% of children, and thus having a similar prevalence to dyslexia, students with dyslexia are about a hundred times more likely to be officially diagnosed (and to receive educational support) in the UK than students with dyscalculia. As a result, by the end of secondary school, the gap between the highest and lowest achieving students in mathematics in England equals around eight years of schooling, which is more than in most other countries. Therefore, the aim of this project is to advance the diagnosis of dyscalculia by developing and standardising a screening tool appropriate for secondary school students, to allow children with mathematical difficulties to receive the targeted educational support they need and deserve.
Dyscalculia is typically diagnosed using a combination of a standardised mathematics test and a clinical synthesis of background information. Accordingly, the current project will provide a standardized mathematics assessment tool, accompanied by a behavioural checklist (to support initial screening and learn about everyday difficulties associated with dyscalculia) and a demographic questionnaire. The project will also include a broader cognitive assessment (of working memory and some basic numerical skills). It is anticipated that the tools produced from this project will highlight students' specific strengths and weaknesses which can inform subsequent intervention.
Based on the development and standardisation work from two empirical studies, this project aims to identify i) the main indicators of being at-risk for dyscalculia in secondary school, ii) typical areas of difficulty in mathematics associated with dyscalculia, and iii) everyday difficulties students with dyscalculia experience (e.g., confusing left and right, problems with time estimation).
The first study will involve the development of the clinical checklist and the mathematics assessment, which will initially be administered to about 60 students, and then refined and administered to another sample of about 100 students for validation. In the second study, the mathematics assessment, clinical checklist, a selection of highly diagnostic cognitive tests, and some demographic questions will be administered to a larger sample of secondary school students (about 200 students/year group). Results from this will be compared against an already existing standardised mathematics test and school records of students' mathematics and English performance, as well as performance of 50 dyscalculic students. Based on this empirical work, we aim to recommend cut-off points for identifying students who are at risk of dyscalculia, and who should be referred to further educational psychology assessment.
In the project, the investigators will be collaborating closely with The Dyscalculia Network, an organisation specialising in providing assessment and educational interventions for children with dyscalculia. Collaborative activities with the Dyscalculia Network will focus on the development of assessment materials for dyscalculia (e.g., by conducting focus groups with teachers and pupils about the assessment and intervention materials), organising professional development events, engaging with parents and pupils, and contributing to recruitment for the empirical studies. Placement periods for the doctoral researcher at the organisation will provide first-hand experience of the difficulties faced by individuals with dyscalculia, which will assist in the creation and standardisation of the screening tool, as well as help answer the three research questions.