← Atlas of Difficulties
S-24
The child confuses left and right — and it gets in the way of math
Type: practognostic
What the research says
Spatial concepts are considered the most important condition for forming the structure of number. The quantitative value of a digit is mediated by place-value notation — by the digit's position in the number.
Lalaeva R.I. Dyscalculia in Children, p. 7 (2005)
Intervention work on developing spatial functions includes: orientation in the surrounding space — telling the right side from the left, the directions “up–down”; orientation in one's own body and using it correctly in movement; and developing spatial concepts (spatial gnosis and praxis).
Lalaeva R.I. Dyscalculia in Children, p. 32 (2005)
Exercises at home — free
Find its place
Builds: Spatial orientation as the basis of the number sequence
You need: number cards from 1 to 10
- Lay the cards out in a row on the table from left to right: 1, 2, 3... 10.
- Remove any 3 cards.
- Shuffle them. Ask the child to put each one back in its place.
- Harder: turn all the cards number side down, leaving one or two as reference points.
- Notice which side the child starts from — the left or the right. If they get confused, practice direction separately.
Lalaeva R.I. Dyscalculia in Children, 2005, ch. 1, 4
Arrange objects according to a plan
Builds: Transferring spatial relationships from a plan to real space
You need: a sheet of paper as the “room plan,” 4–5 small objects: an eraser, a pencil, a coin, a block
- Draw a rectangle and label the sides: “left wall,” “right wall,” “far,” “near.”
- Say: “This is a plan of the room seen from above. Put the pencil by the right wall.”
- The child puts the pencil in the right place on the plan.
- Add a second object: “Put the eraser in the far left corner.”
- Harder: the child describes where each object is on their own, using the words “on the left,” “on the right,” “between.”
Lalaeva R.I. Dyscalculia in Children, 2005, pp. 96–98
Trace the maze with your finger
Builds: Keeping the direction of movement on a flat page
You need: a drawn maze (a simple one: 2–3 turns), a pencil
- Draw a simple maze: a corridor with 2–3 turns, the start on the left, the finish on the right.
- First the child goes through the maze with a finger, without drawing.
- Then draws a line with a pencil.
- If they make a mistake, they erase it and try again.
- Harder: describe the route in words: “first right, then down, then right.”
Lalaeva R.I. Dyscalculia in Children, 2005, p. 100
Finger counting
Builds: Finger gnosis as the basis of the counting system
You need: small objects (toys, blocks) — 5–10 of them, Explain Math to Me number frames
- Put 5 toys in front of the child. “Put your left hand next to them. With your right hand, touch each toy in turn — and fold down the fingers of your left hand.”
- After counting: “Raise your left hand — show how many you counted.”
- Circle all the toys with your hand: “This is how many there are altogether — five.”
- Harder: the child puts the objects into an Explain Math to Me frame, touching each one and saying the number.
- Repeat with different amounts: from 3 to 10 objects.
Baryaeva L.B., Kondratyeva S.Yu. Dyscalculia in Children, 2013, pp. 65–66
Body schema: up — down, forward — back
Builds: Orientation on one's own body — the first stage in developing spatial concepts
You need: a mirror, a colored sticker or a bracelet to mark the right hand
- Stand in front of a mirror together. “Raise your right hand. Now your left.” If needed, put a sticker on the right one.
- “Show me: where is up? Where is down? Where is the front? Where is the back?” The child shows on their own body.
- The “Do what I do” game: the adult makes a movement and the child copies it.
- Moving on to objects: “Put the block in front of you. Behind you. To the right. To the left.”
- Without orientation on one's own body, orientation on a page and writing problems down correctly are impossible.
Baryaeva L.B., Kondratyeva S.Yu. Dyscalculia in Children, 2013, p. 66
Geometric picture
Builds: Orientation on a flat surface, spatial vocabulary
You need: 4 large and 4 small cardboard squares, 3 large and 3 small circles, 1 large and 1 small rectangle, a sheet of A4 paper
- Lay all the shapes out on the table. Name them together: squares, circles, rectangles.
- Task: “You're an artist. Make a picture out of all the shapes.”
- While the child is laying them out, ask: “Where are you putting this circle?”
- Afterwards, ask them to come up with a title for the picture.
- Ask: “What's in the center? What's around the edges? What's higher — the circles or the squares?”
- Watch whether the child uses the words above, below, next to, between, on the left, on the right. If not, prompt them.
- Harder: the adult describes a picture in words, and the child lays it out from the description without seeing a model.
Baryaeva L.B., Kondratyeva S.Yu. Dyscalculia in Children, 2013, pp. 77–78
Worksheets — print and practice
A house with windows — top/bottom, left/right
↓ Download printable PDF (in Russian)Who's in front? — in front of / behind / between
↓ Download printable PDF (in Russian)Without help
- Mixes up place values in numbers: writes 42 instead of 24
- Can't find their way along the number line — doesn't understand that “to the right means bigger”
- Difficulty writing problems in columns: digits end up in the wrong place-value columns