Dyspraxia and maths

Dyspraxia doesn’t determine intelligence.

You can excel at English, maths and science – and still struggle to throw a ball, tie a tie, and drive a car.

Maths, in fact, was one of the clearest indicators – for both my daughter and me – that dyspraxia explained so many of our challenges.

Throughout school, I found most maths topics easy to grasp. In Year 10, my Head of Maths asked me to represent the school in a city-wide competition. (I declined – I wasn’t giving up a Saturday.) He also encouraged me to take GCSE Statistics alongside maths, which I happily did.

So yes, I was capable in maths. My daughter is too – consistently scoring around 90% on past papers ahead of her recent exams.

But that doesn’t mean everything comes easily.

There are always a handful of topics that require more effort – ones that don’t come naturally:

• Rotating shapes

• Drawing graphs from scratch

• Using tools like compasses and protractors

And then there’s sketching 3D shapes – where “a bit harder” turns into a real struggle.

We can both confidently calculate the volume or surface area of a 3D shape. But ask us to draw one, and you’ll likely get a wonky cuboid.

Sound familiar?

If tasks like these feel far more taxing than algebra or probability, it might not be about ability at all – it could be a symptom of dyspraxia.

Further reading

You may be interested in my blogs about dyspraxia in primary school children and dyspraxia in secondary school students.