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Some children work hard and still struggle far more than expected with reading, spelling or numbers. Parents often hear "they are lazy" or "they will grow out of it". Sometimes the real reason is a specific learning disability such as dyslexia or dyscalculia. Knowing the signs, and how assessment works in India, helps you get your child the right support early. This post is general information, not a diagnosis; only a proper assessment can tell you what is going on.
What are dyslexia and dyscalculia?
Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental condition. A review in The Lancet by Peterson and Pennington (2012) describes it as characterised by slow and inaccurate word recognition, found in every culture studied, with problems processing the sounds of language as the leading explanation.
Dyscalculia is a difficulty particularly in understanding and working with numbers, according to the British Dyslexia Association. It is different from simply finding maths hard. The BDA's page on identifying dyscalculia estimates that about 25% of people have maths learning difficulties but only about 6% have dyscalculia. Researchers such as Butterworth, Varma and Laurillard (2011) describe a core difficulty in understanding sets of objects and their numbers, which underlies all of early school maths.
Are they recognised in Indian law?
Yes. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 defines "specific learning disabilities" as a group of conditions that may show up as difficulty to comprehend, speak, read, write, spell or do mathematical calculations, and lists dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia among them. Section 16 says schools funded or recognised by the government should provide reasonable accommodation according to the individual's needs, and should "detect specific learning disabilities in children at the earliest" and take suitable teaching measures.
What signs might parents notice?
No single sign means a child has a learning disability, and children develop at different rates. The NHS lists signs of dyslexia in school-age children, including:
reading at a level below what is expected for their age
being slow and hesitant when reading aloud
written work with many spelling mistakes
difficulty with numbers, telling the time and remembering the order of things
finding it hard to plan and organise schoolwork
For dyscalculia, the BDA points to age-related difficulties with naming, ordering and comparing quantities and numbers, and difficulties with estimating and place value. At home that might look like a child who still counts on fingers for simple sums long after classmates have stopped, cannot tell whether 46 or 64 is larger, or finds money and time very confusing.
Frustration can show up as behaviour, too: a child may act out or go quiet in class.
How does assessment and certification work in India?
Certification of specific learning disability is done under the government's guidelines for assessing disabilities under the RPwD Act. A 2020 amendment to those guidelines, published in the Gazette of India, says the NIMHANS battery is to be used as the diagnostic test for specific learning disability, that a person who tests positive is to be considered a person with benchmark disability, and that the certifying team includes a paediatrician, paediatric neurologist or psychiatrist where available.
In practice, families usually:
Talk to the class teacher and school counsellor or special educator and share what you have noticed.
Ask about screening at school, if the school offers it.
Get a referral for formal assessment at a government hospital or authorised centre that issues disability certificates. Your doctor or the school can tell you where this is done in your state.
Use the certificate to ask for accommodations in school and in board exams. Boards publish their own rules on concessions, so check the current circular from your child's board.
How can you support your child at home?
Tell your child clearly that a learning difference is not about being less intelligent. Read together and let them listen to audiobooks so their knowledge keeps growing while reading catches up. For numbers, use real objects, number lines and everyday maths such as shopping. For ideas in science that are hard to get from a page of text, the Fermi Simulation Lab has interactive simulations for the ideas that are easier to see than to read, which can sit alongside the support your child gets at school. Our post on what to do when a child says they are bad at maths has more ideas for keeping confidence up.
This week, write down the specific difficulties you have seen, with examples, and take the list to your child's teacher.
