Nearly a third of children with ADHD also have a math learning disability. These conditions and other comorbidities, when present in the same patient, are never separate and distinct. Their symptoms impact and complicate one another in ways that educators and clinicians must take into account when designing effective remediation strategies.
At math conferences, I am often the only one talking about learning disabilities. And at learning disabilities conferences, when I present my talk “What’s math got to do with it? Math learning disabilities, dyslexia, and ADHD,” I’m often the only one talking about math. There is a near-void of information about the connections and interactions between ADHD, language-based disorders, and math learning disabilities — and the implications for treatment. Yet data tell us this is a critical need.
Roughly 35% of the population experiences math difficulties of some kind, and 6.4% have dyscalculia, or math learning disabilities (MLD). Children with a family history of math difficulties are 10 times more likely than the general population to have trouble with math themselves. This makes MLD as prevalent as dyslexia or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD or ADD) — yet it often gets overshadowed in classrooms, IEPs, and clinics. READ FULL ARTICLE HERE