Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
All my life I have been an abject failure at one thing - maths.
My other marks were so high that I scraped through, and my education system allowed me to drop it entirely after 15.
I always felt incredibly stupid in maths class. I always felt something was wrong with me, but I got called lazy a lot so figured that was it, even though I excelled in everything else. People still say you can't do it because you don't apply yourself, to this day, which is very annoying as I tried so hard as a child and it caused me no end of grief and frustration and self-hatred. It was like this great glaring black hole in my life. I'm like someone who is illiterate yet manages to trick everyone that they can read thanks to calculators...but it really shows in things like making change, splitting bills etc. I just can't do it.
I only found out about a year ago, that I actually have a condition, and am not just stupid or lazy or deficient. I have every symptom of this condition, and when you consider the effects it has, it does make life a lot harder in all sorts of ways.
Frequent difficulties with arithmetic
Difficulty with everyday tasks like reading analog clocks
Inability to comprehend financial planning or budgeting, sometimes even at a basic level; for example, estimating the cost of the items in a shopping basket or balancing a checkbook
Difficulty with multiplication-tables, and subtraction-tables, addition tables, division tables, mental arithmetic, etc.
Difficulty with conceptualizing time and judging the passing of time. May be chronically late or early
Particularly problems with differentiating between left and right
Inability to visualize mentally
Difficulty reading musical notation
Might do exceptionally well in a writing-related field — authors and journalists are more likely than average to have the disorder[dubious – discuss][citation needed]
Difficulty navigating or mentally "turning" the map to face the current direction rather than the common North=Top usage
Having particular difficulty mentally estimating the measurement of an object or distance (e.g., whether something is 10 or 20 feet (3 or 6 meters) away).
Often unable to grasp and remember mathematical concepts, rules, formulae, and sequences
Inability to concentrate on mentally intensive tasks
Low latent inhibition, i.e., over-sensitivity to noise, smell, light and the inability to tune out, filtering unwanted information or impressions. Might have a well-developed sense of imagination due to this (possibly as cognitive compensation to mathematical-numeric deficits)
Mistaken recollection of names. Poor name/face retrieval. May substitute names beginning with same letter.
No one seems to know it exists, even teachers. I hope my posting this helps someone, somewhere, who also has never been diagnosed or treated.
Also, people who are good at these things - please think for a minute the lifetime of maths failures we have been subjected to, through no fault of our own. It's NOT BECAUSE WE'RE LAZY.
This sounds very familiar. I checked off most everything on the list you wrote. It even shows up in little way. My husband always teases me because when he's driving and I'm navigating, I have to point which direction to turn because my first impulse to call out "right or left" is usually wrong. I usually say the wrong one.
Also, is it called "maths" in Australia? That made me giggle.
Math has always been my toughest subject. To this day it's a struggle and I have to work extra hard to keep up with my classmates. When I was in k-12, I was a wreck. I guess math doesn't come so naturally to everyone like some people believe. Some are simply better at it or have a knack for it, at least from what I observe.
This sounds very familiar. I checked off most everything on the list you wrote. It even shows up in little way. My husband always teases me because when he's driving and I'm navigating, I have to point which direction to turn because my first impulse to call out "right or left" is usually wrong. I usually say the wrong one.
Also, is it called "maths" in Australia? That made me giggle.
LOL I got lost again last night.
What should've been a simple car trip took about half an hour longer than it should've.
I have realised that I have adapted to my disability over the years, so I can read a map if I concentrate...but you can't actually read one while you're driving and because I literally have zero sense of direction, I turned down the wrong road and continued because I thought I was going roughly the right way.
WRONG....I'd gone off sideways and was miles off my destination.
Thank God I took my kids with me to Hong Kong...you can imagine the warren of streets and shops...I'd be halfway to China by now if they hadn't been there to steer me in the right direction constantly. Thank God they didn't inherit this disability.
Math has always been my toughest subject. To this day it's a struggle and I have to work extra hard to keep up with my classmates. When I was in k-12, I was a wreck. I guess math doesn't come so naturally to everyone like some people believe. Some are simply better at it or have a knack for it, at least from what I observe.
The fact that you can keep up at all, means you don't have dyscalculia.
I am 47 and to this day cannot multiply, divide, and I subtract in the most awkward way imaginable because I taught myself.
I sat at the back of the class and scribbled over all my books, and probably disrupted the hell out of my classmates. No one seemed to think this was odd. No one seemed to think that a pretty smart kid getting A+ in English and D- in maths, was unusual...could be because I was a girl?
Clearing out my daughter's room I found some algebra she'd done at high school, it was literally like looking at Egyptian hieroglyphics to me. I was absolutely gobsmacked...I thought, my God I have a mathematical genius! No...just a daughter without dyscalculia.
I'm willing to bet that dyscalculia is more common than we think and that many people who are "bad at math" are unknowingly dealing with dyscalculia because it is such an unknown LD. What annoys me to no end is the assumption that someone is "lazy" because they have serious difficulties grasping complex mathematical concepts. What's easy for one person is not always easy for another... it's all on how we are wired and we are NOT wired the same. I have a great memory for the written or spoken word but numbers have always been more challenging. I don't have issues with time, left or right, or names/faces for that matter but I've cried over struggling with yet another math class (years ago). It's very frustrating because no matter how hard I tred the concepts just don't stick (and believe me, I've invested YEARS into the math subject because I had to). It was a battle (especially in college) to get C's in math and I usually had to retake them multiple times before I could get a C even though I had a tutor and studied my a$$ off. But, keep in mind, that people with dyslexia find a way and can do well academically with the right help... so I think it's possible with dyscalculia. It's just much, much harder and frustrating than those who don't have dyscalculia.
I'm willing to bet that dyscalculia is more common than we think and that many people who are "bad at math" are unknowingly dealing with dyscalculia because it is such an unknown LD. What annoys me to no end is the assumption that someone is "lazy" because they have serious difficulties grasping complex mathematical concepts. What's easy for one person is not always easy for another... it's all on how we are wired and we are NOT wired the same. I have a great memory for the written or spoken word but numbers have always been more challenging. I don't have issues with time, left or right, or names/faces for that matter but I've cried over struggling with yet another math class (years ago). It's very frustrating because no matter how hard you try the concepts just don't stick (and believe me, I've invested YEARS into the math subject because I had to). Keep in mind, that people with dyslexia find a way and can do well academically with the right help... so I think it's possible with dyscalculia. It's just much, much harder than those who don't have dyscalculia.
It doesn't even have to be complex maths. Even simple stuff is beyond me.
I had no idea I had an LD until last year. I knew there was something not quite "normal", but I just thought I had a big black hole of stupid. Now I know all the other symptoms it's like they are describing ME.
I have so much sympathy for dyslexics now. It's like you look at the page and everything just becomes jumbled. It's awful when the person trying to teach you says "don't you get it?" with an amazed look on their face, like how dumb is this person.
I worked in accounting all my life because I learnt how to cope, much like a dyslexic can fool everyone they can read. However, I was never allowed to order the coffees, because even this simple maths of calculating change was beyond me...everyone thought it was hilarious except me.
really? i lived in London, and Dublin and never heard MathSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS maybe i missed it with the accent. lol
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
