Why I’m building an AI math tutor for dyscalculia — and grounding it in 30 years of ITS research

When I started this research I expected dyscalculia to be a niche condition — something a handful of children had, easily addressed with extra practice. The numbers don’t support that. Roughly 5–7% of school-age children have dyscalculia: a specific learning difficulty with number sense that is neurological in origin, persistent across development, and largely invisible in standard classroom assessments.

It’s not “bad at maths.” A child with dyscalculia might have strong reading comprehension, solid spatial reasoning, and consistently fail to grasp that 9 comes before 10. The difficulty is specific, categorical, and resistant to the kind of general maths instruction classrooms provide. Standard adaptive apps — the ones with stars and progress bars — don’t help much because they adapt difficulty without adapting to the mechanism of the difficulty. A child who confuses 51 for 15 (digit reversal) needs something different from a child who skips borrowing. Treating both as “got it wrong, try again” misses the point.

This is the gap NumPath is designed to study. Not to solve — to study, rigorously, in a randomised controlled trial.

Read more HERE

Educational games to help dyscalculic students progress in mathematics

Recent research in cognitive neuroscience demonstrates that the playful approach stimulates brain circuits different from those engaged by classical teaching. This alternative method allows dyscalculic students to develop their mathematical skills while preserving their self-confidence and intrinsic motivation.

In this comprehensive article, we will explore in depth how educational games can revolutionize mathematics learning for dyscalculic students, offering concrete strategies, adapted tools, and methods proven by experts in special education.

Read more HERE

IEP: It’s Just An Acronym!

If you’ve ever wondered what an IEP is, here’s a guide to unpacking the process to help everyone involved.

Besides being an acronym used often within the educational setting, what does IEP mean, and what does it do? Well, it stands for Individualized Education Plan. An IEP is a written set of goals for a child that is developed in a meeting. If a child has a disability and is falling behind in the educational setting, then an IEP is set in place to help them succeed.

If you’re still a little confused, it is okay; to better understand an IEP, we need to understand where it comes from. In 1975, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) was passed, which spoke of giving children with disabilities access to a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). Over the years, the EHA has been updated, changing it to the Individuals with Disabilities Education and Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA 2004). The IDEA 2004, as well as its predecessor, the EHA, apply to children with disabilities.

See the guide HERE