Teaching the ‘Unteachable:’ Tips and Tricks to Best Support and Teach At Risk Students with a Mathematical Learning Disability

The concept of mathematics anxiety being a mathematical learning disability is an unresolved controversy. It is agreed that it is plausible for students to acquire a phobia to math due getting left behind in the subject early on in life (Hersh & John-Steiner, 2011). In fact, Hersh and John-Steiner (2011) stated that 40% of people in the United Stated reported that they hated math, making “mathematics the school subject that provokes the strongest reactions” (p. 303). But what is mathematical anxiety? According to Berch and Mazzocco (2007), “math anxiety is typically defined as a negative emotional reaction to math and to situations in which math reasonings or problem solving must be performed” (p. 329). In some severe cases, it is categorized as a phobia. It is thought that “in some functional ways, math anxiety does seem to operate like a genuine math learning disability, insofar as the outward manifestation includes poor math achieve under certain circumstances” (Berch & Mazzocco, 2007, p. 345). However, that is not always the case. Many experts believe that poor math achievement is a result of have mathematical difficulties, not a math disability.

 

Many experts believe mathematics anxiety is not a MLD because of “medical and environmental conditions that may masquerade as learning disabilities or exacerbate the difficult season of a child who is considered academically weak who does not have a learning disability” (Berch & Mazzocco, 2007, p. 51). Similar medical and environmental conditions include but are not limited to ADHD, overcrowded classes, mainstreaming of children of different capabilities, inadequate teaching methods, untested curricula, emotional issues, family adversity, and environmental deprivation. Furthermore, the attitudes and feelings about math can also impede on a students’ mathematical performance, leading to mathematical difficulties. As stated by Berch and Mazzocco (2007),

Because MLD is a biologically based condition, attitudes about mathematics are unlikely to constitute a predominant causal factor of this disability; nevertheless, attitudes may exacerbate the cognitive characteristics associated with MLD. Anxiety about math may result from one’s awareness that mathematics is an area of pronounced difficulty, yet math anxiety in an otherwise cognitively capable individuals may still decrease performance accuracy (p. 44).

In other words, having a negative attitude towards math will probably cause poor math skills; however, it will not result in being declared as having a MLD due to having the cognitive capability to achieve in math.