The advice goes like this: find out how your child learns best, then teach math that way. It sounds kind, and parents hear it everywhere. Researchers tested that idea in 2008. They found no credible evidence for it (Pashler et al.). A 2024 meta-analysis in Frontiers found the same. If the style hunt has not helped with numbers, that is not on you. It is not on your child either.
FROM THE VIDEO
Key moments from the dyscalculia quiz video above:
- 02:45The quiz turns to causes. Our take: this is a difference in how numbers get processed, not a lack of effort.
- 04:34The quiz asks what helps. Our take: one-to-one practice with the math itself, in line with Haberstroh and Schulte-Körne (2019).
- 06:13The quiz names the number line. In Iuculano (2020), number-line practice carried over to arithmetic.
Common questions from parents
Is multisensory math the same as teaching to my child’s learning style?
What helps a child who struggles with math?
Does a math struggle mean my child has math anxiety?
Is mixing up 6 and 9 a sign of dyscalculia?
Should I try a dyscalculia screener?
Multisensory math and learning styles are not the same thing. One was tested in 2008 and failed. The other is for every child. Here is what helps a child who finds math hard.
Is my child lazy at math?
Maybe someone at school hinted at it. Maybe you wondered it yourself, late at night, over the same worksheet. Nothing in that picture looks like laziness to us.
Landerl, Bevan and Butterworth (2004) studied children who struggled with basic number tasks. The same children did well on tests of IQ, vocabulary and memory. The trouble sat with numbers themselves, not with how bright the child was. To us, that is a difference in how the brain handles numbers. Calling it lazy only means the effort has not met the right method yet. We made a one-page picture of this idea: a math struggle is a difference to teach, not a ceiling.
One more thing to set aside. Some lists say mixing up 6 and 9 is a sign of dyscalculia. Reversals on their own are not a finding. Look instead at what your child does with amounts: counting, comparing, guessing how many.
Calling it lazy only means the effort has not met the right method yet.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
Is multisensory math the same as learning styles?
No, and the difference matters. Multisensory math uses touch, sight and speech on the same problem. Your child moves the blocks, says what happened, then writes the sum. Every child gets all three, every time.
Learning styles is a different claim. It says each child has one best channel, and teaching should match it. That is the part that failed. Pashler and colleagues (2008) found no credible evidence that matching helps. A 2024 meta-analysis in Frontiers confirmed it. Here is the full story of how learning styles were tested.
Newton and Salvi (2020) looked at what educators believe across 18 countries. Nearly 9 in 10 still believed in learning styles. Learning styles were tested and did not hold up, in 2008 and in 2024. That is not a science problem. It is a systems problem.
So is multisensory math the breakthrough? In our view, the blocks are a good way to show a problem. The practice with the math is what builds the skill.
Here is what that looks like at the table. Put three blocks on a paper line, at the mark for 3. Your child says “three.” Then they write 3 beside the blocks. Same problem, shown three ways. The math stays in the center the whole time.
Key takeaways
- Multisensory is not learning styles: Every child uses touch, sight and speech on the same problem.
- Practice the math itself: Haberstroh and Schulte-Körne (2019) found math practice beat general skill training.
- Start with a number line: In Iuculano (2020), number-line practice carried over to arithmetic.
What helps a child who finds math hard?
Haberstroh and Schulte-Körne (2019) looked at help for children who struggle with math. Practicing the math itself did better than training general skills, like memory. Help also worked best one-to-one. In plain words, that means teaching what numbers mean, step by step, out loud. People call that feel for amounts number sense.
The number line is the clearest example. In work by Iuculano (2020), number-line practice carried over to arithmetic. Two number games in the same work did not.
One more myth to drop. Finding math hard and fearing math are not the same thing. Devine and colleagues (2018) found the two largely come apart. Plenty of children who find numbers hard are calm about them. Plenty of anxious children do fine at the math. Dowker (2024) calls them separate conditions. So watch your own child, not a checklist.
Try this tonight:
- Draw a line on paper. Mark 0 at one end and 10 at the other.
- Say a number. Ask your child to point to where it goes.
- Ask, “Is 7 closer to 5 or to 10?” Then ask how they know.
- Stop while it still feels easy.
The blocks show a problem, and practice with the math builds the skill.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
You want your child to feel calm and capable with numbers. You don’t need a credential to be your child’s first teacher. You already are one. The system in the way still teaches an idea that failed in 2008. Start with the free dyscalculia screener. It asks what you have seen at home. You get a picture to take to the teacher.
See what All Access gives your child
Take the dyscalculia test
Is your child struggling in school?
Get your free personalized learning roadmap
You describe what you see at home. We turn it into a plan you start this week.
- Answer 5 short questionnaires about what you already notice, 30–45 minutes at your own kitchen table
- Your child sits no test and gets no score: nothing to schedule, nothing for them to dread
- You do the answering, the AI does the writing, and a person reviews it before it reaches you
- Access all 40+ courses instantly: reading, math, focus, processing and more, with new ones added regularly
Why we use AI, plainly: it writes from a knowledge base our team maintains and audits. We work through it line by line and pull anything the evidence stops supporting. The roadmap you get on Tuesday reflects what we corrected on Monday, and a human still reads it before you do.
Your school district must evaluate your child free of charge if you ask in writing, whatever your income and whatever the outcome (US, 34 CFR 300.111 and 300.301(b)). That route takes time and answers a different question than you do. This one starts today, from what you already know.
Your answers stay yours. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not hand identifiable assessment data to outside AI companies to train their models.
A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis. If your child might need formal accommodations (an IEP or 504 plan), or you suspect a vision, hearing or medical cause, pursue a professional evaluation too. That is the only route to those supports.
