Dyscalculia

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Anyone else struggle with dyscalculia? For those who aren't aware, dyscalculia is the mathematical 'equivalent' of dyslexia.

The irony is, I love and am interested in maths based subjects such as physics and programming but this damn condition has prevented me from becoming successful at them.

Any other sufferers know of coping or alternative learning mechanisms?

I struggle with dyscalcula. I have no alternative learning mechanisms. My coping mechanism is to carry a calculator with me wherever I go (they are cheap and disposable so no problem if I lose one). I have also perfected counting on my fingers with such subtle movements that other people can't tell I'm doing it (I think). I can also count on my toes by wiggling them inside my shoes (that took years of practice starting in childhood).

At work I never have to do calculations that can't be done on a cheap, disposable calculator. I carry my calculator(s) EVERYWHERE.

I have it as well. I wish I could say I had good coping mechanisms but the best I found is to break things down into the simplest form of calculation. It means a lot of extra work but its the best I've got. For example, breaking multiplication down to addition.

I always had trouble in math in school, except for geometry. It was always very frustratiing to explain to people.

All I can say is, I am 36 and still secretly count on my fingers.

The problem with calculators is that most of them dont help with algebra.

I'm good with space awareness and shapes, so i'm kinda good at trigonometry and linear geometry (eg. Pythagoras's Theorem).

I only start to struggle when long equations or complicated pure maths theory like calculus or number sequences are thrown into the mix.

Yes

I do not know where my dyscalculia stops and my AS starts. There seems to be similarities.

I first found out about dyscalculia and recently about AS but it/they include

Almost nonability to use complicated math, geometry or the like
Difficulties "reading" a clock
Difficulties with time management ( I am always late unless I overcompensate)
Difficulties recognizing faces
Always lost when leaving my frontdoor

These things might be related to (just a theory I developed the other day) the fact that I am not thinking in pictures. The inside of my head is black, I think in thoughtlayers (at least four layers at a time).

I am bloody stubborn and pretty good at learning things by heart (but obviously not visualizing them). I got through math and statistics at university by learning things by heart. Unfortunately these math things leave my head shortly after I have learned them (common in dyscalculia). I still remember things I read as a kid about dogbreeds, so it is not my memory that doesn't work, it is just math that do not get stuck in there.

I have a university degree as a gographer (minor) and a biologist (major) (all in all 7½years) and have just begun an industrial P.hD.

Woa!! ! This is me exactly. I spent my entire childhood breaking multiplication down into endless addition and breaking division down into endless subtraction. This took a very long time and I always did badly on math tests because I didn't have time to do this with all the problems. And the teachers deducted points because the entire page was filled with long, long addition and subtraction columns so they could see I wasn't really multiplying and dividing.

The one kind of math I could do was geometry. I baffled myself. I couldn't understand why I could understand. It remains the only sort of math that makes sense. I thought I was unique in being able to do nothing but geometry and long columns of addition and subtraction (until cheap portable calculators were invented). But here you are, exactly the same.

Alas, the calculator can't do algebra. And therefore neither can I. Unless it is the simplest possible equation.

I am middle aged and just secretly counted on my fingers to calculate a waiter's tip just a couple hours ago.

Not entirely sure, but yeah it seems likely. I oftem transpose numbers I have to write down for my job. Its annoying, I am sure this contributed to my math phobia in High School & college ( though I actually found a course that taught me college alegbra in 1991..

Sincerely,
Matthew

I have it also. Hate it because I like numbers and would most likely be obessed with them if my brain understood them.

I had the same "Eureka!" moment when I read about dyscalculia as I had when I read about Asperger's Syndrome. I don't have an official diagnosis, however, so I'm not going to say that I have it. It does explain all of my struggles with math, though. Numbers have always fascinated me, because, logically speaking, they are very logical. Unfortunately, it isn't quite that simple in my brain...

I have it as well and I have found, unfortunately, no good mechanisms other than depending on a calculator to help with it. I've struggled with this all my life, but I wasn't diagnosed till a few months ago when I was diagnosed with AS so I never received any special supports growing up.

This post was the first time I herd of it.

I think I have it.

I was only good with geometry and I'm very good at finding the center by eye (I use that when I'm making stuff) and other dividing.

It's funny because I'm an Civil Engineer, but never use math.
I just have a lot of computer programs that do it for me.

I have it, a calculator helped me most of the time before I got screened for it my parents didn't understand why I was behind my peers even after years of tutoring. I barely passed algebra during my 3rd year in it, my school considered a D- passing, by that time everyone else I knew were in Pre-Cal. During my college assessment test, you weren't allowed to have a calculator I was late to the test, forgot to tell them I had dyscalculia and my papers for it, now stuck in basic math. Where I work, I use my fingers secretly and sometimes spend the entire 8 hours adding up 3 pages of numbers multiple times I get yelled at if my dad finds a mistake in the calculations later. Dad doesn't believe in dyscalculia and believes that I should be able to get the correct amount mentally.

ive suffered discalculia for as long as i can remember but on the bright side other areas of cognition seem to have picked up the slack from this.

what baffles me is that i had strait A's in chemistry and all science related fields but couldn't do anything past simple addition and subtraction of whole numbers so idk

To anyone struggling with dyscalculia or has been told to pull themselves together and just do better...

I recommend learning about working memory and its involvement in dyscalculia

- its our inability to "hold" the numbers during mental calculations that causes problems, according to a lecture I had on cognitive psych this year.

So, being able to do mental arithmetic has very little to do with intelligence, or real ability or talent, and a lot to do with how your working memory functions

this is a hardware glitch that we have to somehow work around.

Definitely me. I couldn't read a clock until I was 12. Still can't add very well. Subtraction close to impossible. Multiplication and division were nothing I could reach, even through rote memorization. Money has always been tricky. Can't remember a phone number. Or a birthday. I pretty well live without numbers. It's been a lifetime of hardship.