The author is a learning support teacher and works with children at Key Stage 3 (KS3) who are struggling to keep up with their peers in most areas of the curriculum. Many of them have specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia and dyspraxia and problems may emerge in reading, spelling, writing, mathematics, speaking or listening. Increasingly, the author finds that her pupils need help with mathematics and most of them are struggling, not because of lack of intelligence or effort on their part, but because their brains are wired differently. In this article, the author describes working on a ratio and direct proportion lesson with Paul, a KS3 student with dyslexia and dyspraxic tendencies.