Dyscalculia

[logansrogue]

I think I might have Dyscalculia.

I'm always very careful of self-diagnosis, but the symptoms are me, up, down and sideways. And it's right throughout my family, too. If this is what I have, it'd answer SO many troubling questions for me. Like why I did so bad at maths in school. And why I can't remember phone numbers or dates or times. Or why I get lost in places I've been to hundreds of times before, or why I am terrible at learning complicated rules of grammar. Or even the difficulties I have playing card games that are more complicated than snap or poker!

The list is absolutely endless.

I've always felt like I'm stupid. My brain stops working once things get to a certain level of complication with numbers or maths. It's just white noise and I can't cope with it.

But if you give me visual problems, space and shape and two-dimensional stuff, I'm great. I'm brilliant. That's why when computer games made the jump from 2-D to 3-D, I got left behind. I played HUNDREDS of computer games on the Commodore 64. It's why I'm so comfortable with the Nintendo DS. It's shape with the stylus! I'm also really good at Wii games because I don't have to figure out the controls. I just make a movement, and it's really intuitive. No complex steps or rules or anything.

It also explains a lot of my difficulties with dancing. I never had a problem doing the steps themselves, just remembering the order of the steps and the different kinds was impossible. Even easy dances like the can-can run at the end of "Wild and Untamed Things" in Rocky Horror. Yet I can do the box-step, years after learning it, because I remember the shape of the dance step.

I'm pretty good with music, but I often hit a wall when the music gets too complicated. My brain can't handle it. I just have to remember the sound and the action, not the numbers involved.

Anyway, I've spent years feeling stupid, and if there's a reason for my difficulty, then I might be able to work around it somehow. And not feel guilty about doing that.

Comments

[ryttu3k.livejournal.com]

My brother has that. He's in year nine and has the maths level of a second grader. He simply doesn't understand numbers in any context. The only part where he differs is that he's great at video games, although he can't use the maps on them.

But yeah. It sounds likely - a lot of people are thinking it might be more common than they think.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

I have a certain level of maths I can work to. Easy stuff like 4 5 or 3 5 or 7 9 - I can do that. It might take me a minute, but I can do it. Get me to subtract 67 from 100 and I take even longer. Like, minutes and minutes. But start with multiplication and long division? I suck. So I'd say I'm about at an 8th grade level before I start sucking.

[ryttu3k.livejournal.com]

You didn't start multiplication until year eight? o.o Huh, we were doing it in year five! But yeah - I have trouble understanding that, I guess - I saw your example and went, "Thirty-three!" pretty much instantaneously (work backwards - add three to 67 to get 70, then add 30 to get to 100), and I got 88 in the equivelent of two-unit mathematics last year. So... it's interesting.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

No no, we did our times tables from year 3. It's easy to rattle off a list of numbers if you have them drilled into your head every morning. But get me to work out 12 x 15? Can't do it. Wouldn't even know where to begin.

I was great at geometry, though. Like, tesselation and stuff. Just the moment formulas and stuff entered the picture, my brain exploded.

[ryttu3k.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I would start by doubling up the 15s - that gives you 6 x 30 instead. I know that 3 x 30 = 90, so I'd double that - 9 x 2 is 18, so 90 x 2 is 180.

Another way - break it in to smaller numbers to make it more manageable. 15 could be written as 3 x 5, 12 could be written as 2 x 6.

Stick those all together - now we have 3 x 5 x 2 x 6.

Pick a pair you're comfortable with - say, 5 x 6, which is 30.

Now it's 30 x 3 x 2.

30 x 3 is 90, so now it's 90 x 2.

And 90 x 2 is 180.

Take it step by step, basically - use smaller numbers to work out the bigger ones.

Failing that, use a calculator XD

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, see, my brain just died trying to make sense of that. This is why I love having a calculator quick button on a keyboard cause I use the thing a LOT.

[ryttu3k.livejournal.com]

Heh, fair enough. And yeah - I was basically glued to my calculator last year XD

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

After 12 x 12 I would have to write it down and work it out visually. I'm the same with spelling sometimes.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd have to do it visually, and it would take me forever to do as well.

[groovekittie.livejournal.com]

OMG That's me too! FOR REALS! I did great in algebra, mostly because it had word problems. And I could never remember any of the formulas. Like for REALS! If I had the formulas given to me, I did FABULOUS, but if I were made to memorize them, I did shit. Like I failed everytime. But given the formula and a calculator, I was amazing. Like an idiot savant. lol Same with calculus.

And all these years, I just thought I was clumsy. lol

[lady-carrie.livejournal.com]

I have Dyscalculia and have always hated numbers and maths, words are just easier for me to understand.

I use numbers every day at work, I just double check everything and then get someone to do a quick check, Work was really good with me, they put me on a maths course which really helped, they say that Dyscalculia get missed so often in school kids that you don't know you've got untill your older.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

I'm finding playing brain training programmes and visual acuity programmes on my Nintendo DS is helping me improve. It's sharpening my skills a lot!