What is dyscalculia? Tara Sutaria opens up about her math-learning disability

In a recent interview, Tara Sutaria revealed that she has dyscalculia – a math learning disability. Here's a breakdown of what it is exactly and its symptoms.

Tara Sutaria recently opened up about living with dyscalculia, a learning disability that can make it difficult to understand, process and work with numbers. While talking about financial literacy in an August 28 interview with Hauterrfly, the Toxic actor revealed that she often makes mistakes when attempting calculations. As a result, she relies on her father and accounts team to help her navigate financial decisions and manage her finances.

The 30-year-old star said, “I am lucky because my dad really helps me with that. It’s very important to know everything about your bank work, your paperwork, how to really take care of your finances as a woman. I try to understand as much as I can but I have a learning disability, a maths learning disability, called dyscalculia. I try, but more often than not I make a mistake. So I need my team, I have my accounts team and all of that – they look into everything.”

What is dyscalculia?

According to the Cleveland Clinic, dyscalculia is a learning disorder that affects a person’s ability to understand and perform mathematical tasks. Similar to how dyslexia affects brain areas involved in reading, dyscalculia impacts regions responsible for processing numbers and mathematical concepts. While signs of the condition typically emerge during childhood, some adults may have dyscalculia without ever being diagnosed.

People who have dyscalculia struggle with numbers and math because their brains don’t process math-related concepts like the brains of people without this disorder. However, their struggles don’t mean they’re less intelligent or less capable than people who don’t have dyscalculia. The learning disability can also take an emotional toll, with some people experiencing anxiety, depression or other distressing feelings when faced with mathematical tasks.

Symptoms of dyscalculia

Symptoms of dyscalculia can vary between children and adults and may present differently depending on the individual. According to the Learning Disabilities Association of America, some common signs and symptoms of the condition in children and adults include:

Symptoms of dyscalculia in children

Children may have difficulty in one or more of the following tasks:

• Counting – starting to count later and less accurately than other children their age.
• Mentally connecting a number with a size or quantity (number sense).
• Effortlessly knowing how many dots are on a dice or dominoes without counting.
• Estimating and comparing larger quantities.
• Memorising sequences such as the order of daily activities or days of the week.
• Doing basic math – memorising and applying math facts for addition or subtraction.
• Learning multiplication tables – learning it one day and completely forgetting it the next day.
• Difficulty choosing the calculation for the numbers in a word problem.
• Needing more time for math work and making mistakes that are far off.
• Learning to tell time using an analog clock.
• Math anxiety is very common.

Symptoms of dyscalculia in adults

Adults with the disability may have difficulty in one or more of the following tasks:

• Being uncomfortable with all sorts of number-related activities.
• Making mistakes in copying and memorising phone numbers, logins, and dates.
• Having trouble with everyday calculations like estimating a shopping total or change given, the tip in a restaurant or sharing the bill, calculating fractions when you need to cook for more people than the recipe is intended for.
• Managing finances in general – a bank account, a checkbook, keeping track of credit card payments and understanding the annual percentage rate (APR).
• Understanding directions and using maps and graphs, calculating distance and speed.
• Keeping track of time, missing appointments and deadlines.

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