Speakers

Karima Esmail is the co-author of the multiple award-winning and SASC-approved Dynamo Maths. This specialist resource has an integrated, standardised dyscalculia assessment and intervention to address developmental dyscalculia.  Karima has also co-authored Dynamopost14 and Puffin Maths for deaf and hard-of-hearing children, which received a Highly Commended award at the prestigious BETT 2022.

Previously, Karima worked as a senior lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire for 15 years. In 2006, she co-authored an award-winning e-assessment solution for Primary Schools. She was drawn to address the demands of SENCos to find learning approaches for children with significant maths learning difficulties. Through this, her expertise in dyscalculia developed. Her research in this area led to the developmental framework NumberSenseMMR™ on which Dynamo Maths has been constructed. The University of Oxford independently validated the developmental framework, and against this, DynamoPost14 and Puffin Maths were developed.

Her motivation is to see that no child with dyscalculia ever goes unnoticed. She worked closely with the Eastern Cape Government to address significant maths difficulties and an NGO in Brazil. More recently, she was involved with a European-funded project to train teachers in Malta.

Karima worked with NASEN to produce a video on dyscalculia for Newly Qualified Teachers. She is also appointed by the Department of Education (Standard Testing Agency) as an Inclusion Expert.

Karima is currently working with Corpal Charity’s research team, which is leading the research into understanding maths difficulties in children with a formal diagnosis of DCC.