Dyslexia vs. Dyscalculia:
What is the Role of Order?

These things we know. Many who can’t add, can’t spell. Many who can’t read, can’t spell. Many who can’t read share many characteristics with those who have number processing problems. Reading, spelling, and number manipulation all involve visual processing and spatial relationships. The parietal lobes play an important role in keeping things in processing spatial information.

Are we looking for the problem and the solution in the wrong place? Is it less about reading or adding and more about space and order?

Why do so many have trouble in one domain and not the other, i.e., they can’t add but read like the wind or vice versa? We need to understand more about the underlying processing problems that separate and unite dyslexia and dyscalculia. Maybe there’s just so much “order” certain brains can handle and the allocation of that space to “letters” or “numbers” is a nurture phenomenon. Or not. We need to know more.