Identification and Educational Support for Students With Learning Difficulties in Mathematics in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden.

The Nordic countries are admired internationally for their well-developed policies on social inclusion within equitable social and educational systems. But we know very little how equally the children who have learning difficulties in mathematics are identified and provided support. The aim of this chapter is to describe and compare the identification and support processes related to mathematical learning difficulties in three Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Based on description we were able to conclude that children with mathematical learning difficulties are identified differently in three countries Finnish, Danish and Swedish are similar, where all focus on low performing children, as a signal for learning difficulties, but their approaches identifying and supporting children with difficulties in learning mathematics are quite different. For example, Sweden has a compulsory screener in year one for teachers to observe difficulties and progression through the first year. Finland, however, seems to be the only country providing free to use intervention tools for educators to work with children who have low performance in mathematics.