The dyscalculia thread.

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A thread for sharing and discussing anything on the subject. I'll start things off by posting a link that dispels some common myths:

https://www.understood.org/en/learning- ... ia#slide-1

Maths is not my strong point , I don't suspect dyscalculia. I do tend to have a harder time with language-based maths though , I don't suspect dyslexia either.

Yeah, I often find when people say they are bad at maths, they are often still better than me at it.

It can be annoying sometimes when I see people who say "Omg so bad at maths", and they are in one of the top classes, whilst I'm over here finding it hard to divide, and read questions correctly. (Not that I'm having a go at you, just saying in general).

"Right answer, wrong question", was a common phrase I'd hear in my maths class.

Although my answers were technically correct, I would copy the question down incorrectly, and often accidentally create my own. If the question was say, 5*9 on a worksheet, then sometimes my brain would take numerical information from across the sheet, say 2+3, and combine the two, 5+3.

It's also common for my brain to read plus signs as minus, or times as plus (or vice versa).

My teachers were never concerned though, they just found it funny. One teacher I had would mock me, sometimes I would even get in trouble for it. Which I thought was unfair because it wasn't like I was purposefully trying to write the question down wrong.

She told me that I needed to focus on the board more, due to this I would often recheck my work before she came over to make sure I hadn't gotten any of the questions wrong, because if I did then she would grab the paper and complain at me whilst the rest of the class fell into silence. I hated it.

My issues were always in plain sight, but the people around me just either assumed I was an idiot, that I didn't try, or both.

I mainly struggle with arithmetic, and when I found out that a lot of what I was dealing with fell under dyscalculia symptoms, suddenly it made sense.

School was frustrating to me, because sometimes I would get good at a particular method in maths, and the next day I would just forget it as if I had my memory wiped. It left many of my maths teachers puzzled. "But, you were really good at this last lesson, how have you forgotten?". So to remind myself, I would usually read over the notes from last lesson, and try to practice, but often to no avail.

Mental maths felt impossible, and I'll admit that I often secretly wrote notes on my hand trying to work out equations during mental maths tests.

Mainly because I often lost where I was whilst trying to visualise equations, to the point where I get midway through working out a question, and have to start at the beginning because I couldn't remember where I was with working it out.

Sometimes I would cry in frustration whilst doing maths homework. I hated how I was trying so hard, yet my teachers sometimes accused me of not trying hard enough.

I passed my maths exam so I can't be that bad at it.
I do remember a time in primary school when we had to recite times tables and I was chosen to do the 7 times table. I had to go to the front of the class and recite it in front of everyone , I started off confidently but my mind went blank at around 4 x 7 = . I remember it like it was yesterday as I broke down in tears in front of the whole class , I'm pretty sure my mind treats that event as some sort of trauma

I suspect I have dyscalculia. I have almost all the symptoms I see listed when I look it up. Numbers and formulae just won't stick in my head no matter how hard I try to remember them.

I've found that I'm not bad at math. The problem is the way in which math is taught in high schools and colleges. Everything is all about solving problems quickly so you can perform well on timed exams. That's a total BS way to do it. I went through my HS and college thinking I was mediocre at math, but when I went back and studied it on my own time and terms, I understand and do well.

Suspect I am, but I'm done with maths in school for ever. I ask far below government standards of math, English, and writing.

Yes I have Dyscalculia. I got tested some years after finishing high school, all that testing also led to me being diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome and social anxiety. That's two diagnosis to many, one is more than enough to complicate my life

Both my mother and Sister have Dyslexia, I don't, I read and write fine.

Some Aspies think it's strange I'm so bad at math because it's not seen as typical for autistic people. Some think it's required to be good at maths or being interested in maths to be autistic. An old aspie math teacher I know was baffled by this when I told him I had trouble with math. it was like he could not understand how that was possible.

I also have trouble with time. I struggled to learn the clock and still get confused by it. I'll mix up past tense and future, and some concepts involving time is just incredibly difficult for me to understand.

I'm still in the process of seeking testing, and I hope to be tested soon. For most of my life it's been suggested that I have it, but plenty of teachers have tried to deter me from getting tested in fear of it dragging down my confidence.

Some have even suggested that it's just maths anxiety, but that label doesn't feel right to me. It seems clear that I'm not just anxious about maths, since I have notable difficulty with it.

My dad is dyslexic, so I know what it's like to have dyslexic family members. I'm not dyslexic either, but often when I looked into testing in the past, people would heavily suggest that I go for dyslexia testing instead.

I spoke to a woman not long ago, and she said that when I do get tested, they will probably do a few dyslexia tests before they test for dyscalculia, just to rule possibilities out. Is this true? What was going through testing like for you?

Apparently it's common for dyscalculia to occur in families that have members who are Adhd and/or dyslexic, since these condition often co-occur but not always.

In fairness, for awhile I got the impression that aspies all liked maths. It's a common stereotype, but I know this woman on another forum who is both autistic and dyscalculic, and she has been supportive of me.

Yeah, I also have trouble with time sometimes, so I can relate.

I don't remember much from the tests, I did a lot of test at the time and they all blend together when I think about them. I think it was some basic math tests. I remember getting the results saying I had learning disabilities and dyscalculia and that I belonged to the 3% something of the population who have it.

Can't remember If I took any dyslexia tests, I probably did though as part of the whole process getting diagnosed.

So...you had trouble distilling a hypothetical life situation down to a math problem?

Like for example: if the teacher said "if johnny had six apples, and mary had four apples. And they combined their supply of apples, how many apples would they have combined?" you would reply "the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the square of the other two sides. So six squared plus four squared is 52. And the square root of 52 is a hair more than seven. So the answer is seven!"

And that would force the teacher to say "right anwer. Wrong question. you're supposed to add Mary's apples to Johnny's apples, and get ten."

XD haha no.

It was more, say for example a teacher tells me to "answer question 10" which is written as 5x4, but then without realising I would get numerical information from another question. Let's say question 15 is "8+3", in which case my mind would look at the paper and read it as "Question 10) 5+3" (the 5 from question 10, the +3 from question 15) to which I would answer 8. The answer is correct, however the question I was meant to be answering was "5x4" not "5+3". Kind of like the numbers and symbols are moving around/ switching places randomly on the page.

Teachers would come over to mark my work, and be confused because 5+3 does in fact equal 8, but the question on the sheet, the one I was supposed to be answering, was 5x4 which is 20. They'd ask me where on Earth I got 5+3 from, and then I'd look and realise what I'd done.

5+3 was never on the sheet, but thanks to my brain I would read it that way, and accidentally create a brand new question that wasn't even originally there. I did have moments where I would get the right answer, but not for the right reasons like you did above, but that wasn't what I was talking about.

I do, I'm pretty sure anyway. Another thing I didn't have a name for until recently, dyscalculia.
I'm pretty much stuck at multiplication and division. Easy things I can divide, or at least get close. Better with multiplication, but not much. If I can write it on paper I can usually get the right answer multiplying. I can't even remember how to divide on paper.
I also have problems with clocks, I can read them but it takes a minute. Estimating distance is just impossible for me. Have a really difficult time trying to grasp music notation, too. I know what pitch is designated, but trying to translate it into time makes my head hurt. I have to figure out timing by ear.
It has always driven me crazy when people insist that music is math, and that being good at one means I must be able to do the other.

Grrrr.
I'm so bad with numbers I even have trouble copying things down like phone numbers. I transpose - if it's written 5453 I'll see 5435. I literally have to go through phone numbers each individual digit at a time, checking it is correct, while covering the other digits so I can't see them. It's embarrassing.
However, I can count, and differentiate between more or less, which some people with severe dyscalculia can't.
I had external remedial math tutoring throughout my whole time at school. It did nothing. It was not because I wasn't taught - I was taught ten times more than anyone else and I still couldn't get it.
It sucks because I'm interested in math. But at times it's like being interested in running when you have no legs.
I wondered if irlen lenses would help with dyscalculia? People who have dyslexia (which I don't have, either - I have always had above average abilities with reading and writing and was in advanced English classes at school) have supposedly had miraculous results using colour transparent overlays. The way they describe the information in the words not "getting in" is the same way numbers feel for me. But I can't seem to find info on whether or not this would help - are the problems causing dyslexia and dyscalculia located in the same areas of the brain? If so, theoretically it might work.
I've always wanted to work on this, but it seems impossible as an adult. No one teaches adults (when there is a LOT of support available for adults with reading difficulties) and even if they did, people don't seem to understand that they are dealing with someone with a learning disability, and just get sh***y with you when you can't do simple tasks.
It sucks - as noted, I'm interested in math and would like to learn to do it if I could, but my brain won't cooperate.

^ +1. Your post in it’s entirety, verbatim.

I'm also curious about how dyscalculia plays out in higher mathematics. When you get out of the realms of mental arithmetic and into conceptual math. Where it is theory, formula, concepts, and simple number crunching stops being the all. It would be safe to say that anyone with this problem never got there - because you've already been convinced by highschool math that "I can't do this, so there's no point trying."
And everyone likely agreed with you. I find this with physics - I always shied away from basic physics because of the number-based math inherent in it - and yet M theory in conceptual form makes perfect sense to me.