Math Tutoring for Students With Dyscalculia
Students with dyscalculia can learn math. In our experience, what holds them back is usually missing foundations: subtraction, negative signs, place value, times tables. We find the exact gaps, teach them slowly with tools like a labeled place-value chart, and check often until the basics hold.
“A diagnosis tells you that something’s missing, but it doesn’t tell you that they can’t succeed.” — Sean Alexander, founder
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Meet tutor and special-programs teacher Jake Gerhardt.
B.S. Applied Physics from UC Santa Cruz and a teacher of gifted and differently-abled students. He starts every student who struggles with numbers on the same check: can they read the symbols, set the problem up, and know what each symbol is asking?
Jake Gerhardt
Jake earned his B.S. in Applied Physics at UC Santa Cruz. With a student who struggles with numbers, he checks three things first: can they interpret the math symbols, follow the process of setting a problem up, and say what each symbol is telling them to do.
He teaches individualized programs at Pacific Preparatory School for gifted and differently-abled students from 7th grade through high school, and in six years of tutoring has worked with 15 to 20 students with IEPs, 504 plans or learning differences. The one thing he won’t allow in a lesson is a student calling themselves stupid.
- B.S. Applied Physics, UC Santa Cruz
- Teacher of individualized programs, Pacific Preparatory School, San Francisco
- 15 to 20 students with IEPs, 504s or learning differences in six years of tutoring
- Specializes in executive functioning alongside the mathematics
The Alexander Difference
Passion + Purpose = Empowered
When math serves your student’s passion, it has purpose. When it has purpose, something remarkable happens — they become empowered to use education to achieve their dreams.
Personalized Matching = Student Passion
We start by learning what lights your student up — music, sports, art, science, anything. Then we match them with a tutor who shares that passion and shows them how math is the hidden engine behind the things they already love. When math serves something they care about, it stops being a chore.
“His high school teachers were great, but were not able to provide the depth and level of support that was needed… His grade went from a C- to an A- within the year he was tutoring… His confidence in math has accelerated to a point where he is planning to take a dual enrollment college calculus course next year as a senior in high school.”
— Krystal M., Parent · Read on Google ↗
Deep Understanding = Purpose
Most students survive math by memorizing formulas — until one curveball on the test sinks them. We teach the why behind every equation, deriving formulas and connecting them to the real world. When your student truly understands the math, they can solve anything a teacher throws at them.
“Tyler at Alexander Math and Physics tutoring helped my son to test into Algebra 2 honors! His math grade in school went up to an A. Then when we told him he could stop tutoring with Tyler he didn’t want to stop tutoring because he enjoyed what he was learning.”
— Alexandra N., Parent · Read on Google ↗
Confidence First = Empowers Students
There’s no such thing as being ‘bad at math’ — only bad math experiences. A harsh teacher, embarrassment in class, one bad test — and suddenly your student decides they can’t do it. We rewrite that story. With a supportive tutor who believes in them, ‘I can’t’ becomes ‘I’ve got this.’
“Being a straight A student, it was difficult to accept her lower grades and it affected her confidence… within two sessions, my daughter felt more confident in Algebra, her test scores improved… My daughter had not only improved her grades but also developed a genuine interest in math.”
— Diana G., Parent · Read on Google ↗
Everything changed for these families.
My 8th grader was so demoralized about math before working with Rebecca. In addition to identifying and targeting her areas of struggle with the school material, Rebecca also worked hard to dismantle my daughter's math anxiety and shame. She built a ton of trust and managed to really connect with a teen who until then had been doing her best to hide her deficits, racing through material too fast, pretending not to care, or shrugging it off as "I guess I just suck at math." Together they worked to fill the gaps left after struggling through the pandemic and remote classes, and get my daughter excited about the subject again. She brought her grade from a C to an A, but more importantly, she's not embarrassed to ask for help anymore. Rebecca is a game-changer. We've also really utilized the skills videos and progress reports provided in addition to tutoring.
I was referred to Sean by my daughter's former Math teacher when she was having trouble transitioning from Integrated Math into Pre-Cal. She went from being an A math student her whole life to getting the first F she had ever received in any class. After working with Sean for a short time she made significant progress. My daughter has a learning difference, and Sean was able to work with her on strategies. In addition to helping her with the basics, he helped her re-gain her confidence. He was great about keeping me in the loop and addressing any concerns, and is very responsive. My daughter also enjoyed his teaching style and found him much more informative and helpful than her Pre-Cal teacher and the tutors provided by her school. He really helped us tackle and move past a horrible experience.
The last time I took a math class was in high school, which was eight years ago. Even then, I never received a grade higher than a “D” in any math class. I recently started College again, and my major requires a good amount of math classes, beginning with Trigonometry. I knew I would struggle without extra help, and that's when I found Alexander Tutoring. I started with Alexander Sheynis before my Trig class began. He helped me to build strong algebraic foundations first. He sent me a ton of worksheets to complete each week and was always available to answer any short questions through email, which was nice, so then we could focus on tougher questions during tutoring time. He was accommodating and good at making sure all work was done accurately. He cared about making sure I understood the “why” and was extremely thorough with his explanations. When I started class, we would go over the material taught that week, and if I understood it, he would teach me shortcuts and tricks to use. He was very encouraging and always brought me up when I would talk negatively about my math skills. Now I’m tutoring with Dexter Dysthe! I find it hard to find a teacher, especially in math, that can explain the material in a way my brain can comprehend. With Dexter, I always understand what he is saying, and he explains topics simply and effectively. I enjoy his mnemonics, which make it easy to remember essential formulas. I find myself saying, “oh! I didn’t know that!” a lot during our sessions. He seems to catch crucial information left out of my professor's lectures. He is very easy to talk to and makes math enjoyable. I am so thankful for these tutors. I have gotten an A on every exam and quiz thus far! I never thought that was possible for me. It’s truly an amazing and exciting feeling to understand a subject I have struggled with for so many years. Thank you, Alexander Tutoring!!
My daughter was feeling wholly defeated and distressed by her Honors Trig & AP Bio classes. To the point she was considering dropping her STEM-focused hopes for college. She started working with Rebecca and that changed everything. Rebecca identified challenges, shored up her foundational skills, and taught her methods and practices that she could build on. My daughter’s confidence and competency made a dramatic about-face, and her outcomes on both tests and transcript reflect that shift. She feels confident about the upcoming challenge of Physics and Statistics next year, knowing Rebecca, and her colleagues at Alexander Tutoring, are available to support her.
Rebecca has been consistent in establishing a relationship with my daughter and working with her year after year to teach foundational math skills that will carry forward with her. Calculus made easy! Money well invested as I have LITERALLY watched Frustration melt into Absolute understanding of the subject. Thank you!!
Finding the right teachers/tutors for my son is not always easy, as he has dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADHD. A lot of educators just don't get it. To that end, I typically, use tutors who work exclusively with kids with learning differences. But I decided to take a gamble on Sean and it paid off. My son was failing Algebra before we started tutoring. We are now going into finals with a chance for an A in the class.
We are incredibly grateful for the support, patience, and encouragement provided this semester. What started as a stressful and discouraging experience has completely turned around, not just academically, but emotionally as well. Beyond helping strengthen understanding and confidence in Geometry, the consistent positivity, calm approach, and ability to connect have made such a meaningful impact. Seeing renewed confidence, reduced anxiety around math, and even excitement after assessments has been wonderful to witness as a parent. Krishaan, thank you for not only being an excellent tutor, but also for being someone who truly knows how to motivate and support students through challenges. Your work genuinely makes a difference.
Krishann has been absolutely amazing! She explains math in a way that helps our child not only complete the work, but truly understand it. Krishann brings such a positive attitude to every session, and our child feels comfortable asking questions and making mistakes without feeling discouraged. We are so grateful for the confidence and understanding she is helping our child build!
Sean is a great instructor. He works well with all types of students. My child with some learning difficulties did well under his tutoring. I sat in on several sessions and was really impressed with his style of teaching. He has a lot of patience.My 2nd child used Sean's summer program to gain some confidence in math! I highly recommend Sean.
Sean tutored my son who is currently in grade 10. I asked him to write this review since he has first-hand connection with Sean and can better describe his experience with him.Here it is: Sean is the coolest Math tutor on the planet. I'm more of the artist type, so Math is not my strongest suite, but when it came down to the 2nd half of our first trimester at school last year, I knew my grades were in trouble. My parents did some research to get me some help and found Sean's website. On his website, it said he also specializes in kids with Learning Disabilities. PERFECT! I happen to have ADD and get distracted quite easily. From the time I first met Sean, I knew we would click. He has a very easy-going demeanor in him that makes everything he teaches become effortless. He has this way of explaining things and all of a sudden, it becomes crystal clear when he's done. I breezed through my Math classes for the entire year last year all with the help of Sean. I hear he's also a whiz at Science so I might sign up with him again when I start my Science classes. Sean is the man!
Dyscalculia tutoring at a glance
- What it is
- A specific learning disorder with impairment in mathematics: lasting trouble with number concepts, math facts and accurate calculation (APA).
- How common
- About 6% of primary school children in a study of nearly 2,500 children, yet a child with dyslexia was over 100 times more likely to be diagnosed.
- How we teach
- Find the repeated mistake, rebuild subtraction, signs and place value, read word problems before the numbers, check backwards, and give it time.
- Who teaches
- Tutors with degrees in math, physics or engineering. Our founder taught at a school for neurodivergent students, and Jake Gerhardt teaches gifted and differently-abled students. Meet the team.
- What it costs
- $895/month on Dedicated Tutor: a weekly one-on-one session, nightly office hours, monthly progress reports and direct tutor access. See all plans.
- The first lesson
- Risk-free, with a skills assessment that shows exactly which foundations are missing and a 30-day plan that is yours to keep.
What is dyscalculia, and why is math hard with it?
Dyscalculia is the common name for a specific learning disorder with impairment in mathematics. The American Psychiatric Association describes it as trouble with number concepts, learning arithmetic facts, and calculating accurately and fluently. To be diagnosed, the difficulty has to last at least six months despite targeted help, and it can’t be explained by other causes, including a lack of instruction.
That last rule matters, because math builds on itself. A gap in subtraction or negative numbers follows a student into every later class:
- Subtraction and signs. Caleb Nastasi finds addition is usually fine. Subtraction, adding a negative and subtracting a negative are where students slip, and those slips come back in exponents and algebra.
- Reading the symbols. Jake Gerhardt first checks whether a student can interpret math symbols, set a problem up, and knows what each symbol is telling them to do.
- Word problems. Krishann McConico sees these most. A student spots “how many more” and adds, when the full question asks for a difference.
- Fractions, decimals and multi-step problems. Every extra step is another chance for a number to get flipped or lost.
“Dyscalculia is a real diagnosis, but in my experience it’s almost always given to a student who is missing foundations. They were afraid to say they didn’t know their times tables or couldn’t add negatives, and it carried all the way to algebra. Then the label arrives and they’re excused from learning those foundations.” — Sean Alexander, founder
How do our tutors teach math to students with dyscalculia?
Foundations first, then time. These six habits come straight from how our tutors work with students who have dyscalculia or struggle with number sense.
1. Find the repeated mistake
Before reteaching anything, Krishann McConico looks for the same wrong answer to the same kind of question. Sometimes the digits are right but flipped around.
“If I see that same pattern, then I know, oh, they’re seeing it differently. Let’s find a resource or tool that can make this work for them.” — Krishann McConico
A pattern tells us exactly which foundation to fix, so the lesson time goes there instead of to random practice.
2. Rebuild subtraction and signs
Caleb Nastasi spends a lot of time on one-digit subtraction, then on the sign rules: adding a negative is subtracting, subtracting a negative is adding, and a negative times a positive is negative. He teaches small mental checks too, like knowing 6 + 7 always ends in a 3. Then fractions, using common factors to simplify.
“The students will understand, like, oh, I have to subtract, but then they’ll do the subtraction wrong. I think really spelling out those things with the signs can be pretty helpful.” — Caleb Nastasi
3. Give numbers a place to live
Krishann’s favorite tool is a labeled place-value chart, with the ones, tens, hundreds and thousands named, for adding and subtracting. “A labeled place value chart goes a long way,” she says.
For students still building multiplication fluency, she hands out a laminated multiplication chart and pulls it back slowly as the facts stick.
“Right now, I’m letting them use them, because I know that your fluency needs to be built. If this is the tool that you need to have it, cool, but eventually I can start pulling back.” — Krishann McConico
4. Read the story before the numbers
Albert Meng has students cover the numbers in a word problem first and say what the problem is about. Only then do the numbers come back.
“Just read the story, and then tell me, okay, what was this movie about? What’s this problem about? Okay, now we can uncover the numbers.” — Albert Meng
Krishann teaches the CUBES strategy for the same reason: circle the numbers, underline the question, box the key words, eliminate what you don’t need, then solve. It stops a student from seeing “more” and adding before reading the whole question.
5. Check it backwards and slow down
If 22 + 29 comes out as 15, running it in reverse shows the problem right away. Krishann has students check every answer that way.
“I always say, go backwards. Does it make sense in the backward than it does going forward? Just check it and slow down.” — Krishann McConico
Albert adds one more habit: write reference equations and intermediate values on the side of the page, so working memory isn’t carrying them.
6. Give it time, not lower expectations
“The accommodation is time. Go slow. But they can always do it.” — Sean Alexander, founder
Going slow isn’t the same as expecting less. When a student says “I can’t do math, I have dyscalculia,” Krishann answers with affirmations: “If they’re a track star, I’m like, you love to run. If one day you twist your ankle, do you stop being a track star?”
Jake Gerhardt puts the goal this way: “Teaching them how to be perseverant means teaching them to be okay with failing, but to not be okay with quitting.”
Free for parents
The Dyscalculia Survival Guide
Nine pages from our tutors: the fundamentals to check first, five tools that help, a ten-minute daily routine, what to say when your child says “I can’t do math,” and printable place-value and multiplication charts.
What does progress look like?
About a month of consistent work
Every student is different, but our tutors see real progress quickly once the right foundation is being rebuilt. Jake Gerhardt puts it at four to five weeks on average. Krishann McConico says about a month, as long as the work is consistent.
“The main thing is consistency. If we’re consistent at the same thing over and over, even if it’s the same subject over and over for a month, I know it’s gonna stick.” — Krishann McConico
The times tables she was excused from
Sean Alexander remembers a parent who didn’t want her daughter learning the multiplication tables, because she had dyscalculia. His view hasn’t changed: “She could totally learn the multiplication tables.” Skipping a foundation doesn’t protect a student. It makes every later class harder.
Ready to start? Book a risk-free first lesson, or read how we work with learning differences.
What about calculators, charts and testing?
Accommodations: use the ones your child’s school provides, like a calculator or extra time. Jake’s rule for any accommodation is “just enough accommodation for them to be able to succeed like other students.” In lessons we also build the facts underneath, like Krishann’s multiplication chart that gets pulled back over time.
Testing and diagnosis: that’s for a qualified evaluator, such as a school psychologist or neuropsychologist, and we don’t diagnose. What we can tell you after a first lesson is which foundations are missing and how we’ll fill them.
What can parents do at home?
- Don’t agree that it’s okay to be bad at math. Caleb Nastasi: “Maybe agreeing that math is hard is OK, but don’t agree that it’s OK to be bad at it.”
- Don’t call it easy. Jake has seen “this is easy” turn into “I must be stupid” for a kid who doesn’t get it yet.
- Practice math facts a few minutes a day. Caleb suggests short timed rounds of one-digit multiplication or division, aiming to improve on last time.
- Ask for resources. Krishann’s advice to parents: ask your child’s school and tutor what tools are out there. “The better ones are for free.”
ADHD Math Tutoring FAQ
Can a student with dyscalculia learn math?
Yes. It usually takes more time and a slower pace, not lower expectations. We find the foundations that are missing, rebuild them with tools like a labeled place-value chart, and check often until they hold.
Is it dyscalculia, or is my child missing foundations?
Dyscalculia is a recognized diagnosis, and only a qualified evaluator can make it. The diagnostic criteria require the difficulty to last at least six months despite targeted help. In our experience many students with the label are also missing foundations like subtraction, negative signs or times tables, and we teach those either way.
What are common signs of dyscalculia?
The American Psychiatric Association describes trouble with number concepts, learning arithmetic facts, and calculating accurately and fluently, lasting despite help. If you see those, talk to your child's school or a psychologist about an evaluation.
What do your tutors work on first?
Whatever the repeated mistake points to. Most often that's one-digit subtraction, sign rules, place value, multiplication facts, simplifying fractions and reading word problems carefully.
Should my child use a calculator or a multiplication chart?
Use the accommodations the school provides. In lessons we use charts while fluency is being built, then pull them back slowly as the facts stick.
How long until we see progress?
Every student is different, but our tutors usually see real progress in about four to five weeks of consistent weekly work.
How much does tutoring cost?
Dedicated Tutor is $895/month: a weekly one-on-one session, nightly office hours for homework help, monthly progress reports and direct tutor access. No signup fee, no contract, and the first lesson is risk-free. See all plans.
Related reading:
- The Dyscalculia Survival Guide for Parents (free PDF)
- What Tutoring Looks Like for Students With Learning Disabilities
- Turning Learning Disability into Learning Genius
- 8 Expert Math Strategies for Struggling Students
- 8 Ways to Recognize a Child Struggling in School
- Testing Accommodations for Students With Neurodivergence
- Math Anxiety Is Real. Here’s a Proven Way to Prevent It
- How Confidence Relates to Mathematics
Further reading: APA: What is specific learning disorder? · BPS Research Digest on dyscalculia diagnosis
Most tutoring gets a student through Friday’s test. That’s not what we’re for.
Your student learns where every formula comes from — so a problem they’ve never seen stops being a threat. They stop asking whether something will be on the test and start asking why it works.
If it doesn’t work, you don’t pay. Period.
We’re so confident in our method that we guarantee your results for the entire semester. If you’re not satisfied at the end of the term, we’ll refund every penny. No fine print. No partial credits. A full refund.
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