Dyscalculia: Dyslexia's Lesser-Known Sibling
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I have dyscalculia. Not sure what that is? Don’t feel bad; most people have never heard of it, and it wasn’t something any of my teachers knew about when I was in school. In fact, most teachers still aren’t familiar with it. Neither are many parents of children who have it. This is a bit sad, considering the World Health Organization and DSM both agree it's a real developmental disorder that affects approximately 1 in 20 people.
So what is it?
Simply put, dyscalculia is like dyslexia for numbers. Not exactly, mind you, but close enough for this explanation. There are 4 categories of dyscalculia: semantic retrieval, procedural, visuospatial and number fact. That said, it's not always as obvious as failing grades. A child can have one or all of these, and still manage A’s in math class. I did, until Algebra came along and screwed me up completely. Which means diagnosing this problem isn’t always easy, especially when the student excells in the rest of their subjects.
Common Symptoms:
Difficulty learning how to tell time. Realize this isn’t just your average learning issue – this is 1000% worse than the average learning curve. I was the last person in my entire grade to learn how to tell time. I could get the concept with my nifty digital Garfield watch – but when asked to read my analog Smurfette watch, I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t read the damn thing. This led to lots and lots of frustration. I mean, I’m 31 and I still remember it like it was yesterday.
- Difficulty with other time concepts. I've learned how to tell time, but if you ask me to look at
a clock and tell you what time it will be in 3 hours and 40 minutes… be prepared to wait awhile for the answer. Unless it’s exactly the top of the hour when you ask. And don’t even think of asking me what time it was 3 hours and 20 minutes ago… I’ll slap you silly for hurting my little brain.
Difficulty learning how to read sheet music, despite having musical talent. I studied classical piano as a kid, and I was pretty good – but I was crap at reading sheet music. I only got by because I (thankfully) have both a photographic and audiographic memory. If I combined this with my meager note-reading skills, I could swing it. I'd watch my teacher play the piece a few times and then I'd practice what I recalled seeing and hearing. I wasn't a prodigy, but it was enough to keep her from knowing I couldn't really read it. And I still can’t. Oh, I know where the notes go, and I know how long to sustain them for. But toss ‘em into a book and ask me to look at a full string of them, and my eyes just cloud over and I can’t separate them anymore; it all jumbles together.
Difficulty doing even basic math in one’s head. This is a very real problem for me, and every man I’ve ever dated learned very quickly to yank my paying privileges when dining out. Why? Cos I tend to end up tipping 50%, when I all I wanted to do was tip 20%. Hey, I know calculating 20% is easy for the average fool, but not for me. I can’t even picture the numbers in my head, it’s just no use. The only math I can do in my head is that which I memorized as a child. I did not memorize decimals, and that’s all I see when I look at a cheque.
Difficulty with telling direction. I have a pretty good intuitive method of finding my way from city to city, country to country. I can only assume it’s God taking pity on me, cos I cannot do directions. Literally. Give me a compass to look at, and I want to cry. It’s an instant headache. If you want me to go NW, you better just point your finger, cos that’s the only thing I’m going to be able to follow.
Difficulty following step-by-step instructions. This applies to many things. I had a hard time in my university physiology class, because the professor would tell us what steps to follow in the lab – and it was in one ear and out the other. I could do the steps, that wasn’t the problem. I just couldn’t keep track of them as he said them. I had to write them down and constantly refer to them to see what came next. This also applies to things like aerobics class. Every time I’d join one, it took a few classes before I could memorize the routine – cos I couldn't put her instructions together with the step she wanted us to do. No one else seemed to have this problem, just me!
There are other symptoms, but these are major ones which affect me, personally. They can vary in magnitude from person to person, but it’s unlikely an idividual would ever completely cure themselves of it. In my opinion, the best way to cope is to simply let those in your life – especially a significant other – know that you have this problem. Better explain it now, than have to apologize later for tipping 75% without having realized it!
xx Isabella
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Comments
Great information!
I guess you function well, so what.
Great HUB
regards Zsuzsy
Kenny - I can find my way, as long as no one tells me how to get there. ;)
Zsuzsy - Thanks! :)
WOW!! Wonderful Hub Isabella!! I have never heard of such a thing!! But I can sooooooooo relate!! I sold commercial real estate for almost 25 years but can't find my way out of a paper bag when it comes to directions!! I still have trouble telling my right from left!! I too, got straight A's in school until algebra; I took it three times and finally passed with a D-!! I made up for it by getting a degree in accounting but that was because I had a calculator!! I over tip all the time and just pass it off as being generous!! Sheet music looks like a foreign language!! I even have trouble with where 'west' is . . . and I live near the ocean!! GREAT insight!! Thank you soooooooooo much for sharing!! I continue to admire so many things about you!! Especially your life success in spite of these things!! Blessings, Earth Angel!!
I will shout it out loud, you´re not black but you´re proud, or at least i am to know you, here at hubpages, you are a damn good hubber.
Just wanted you to know
yours
J.T
A Magic hub. I believe what you say that God gave you the ability and sense for a photographic mind and memory
Thank you for sharing this painful knowledge.
Anyway who cares if you tip 75% money is meant to go around
Informative .Keep it up.
Great hub - informative and interesting. Thank you!
EA - Thanks! I barely passed with a C in Algebra, I think. It sucked! ;)
JT - LOL, thank you! :)
Mr. Marmalade - 75%.. tell my ex-boyfriends that. ;)
Aman - Thanks!
Teeray - Thank you!
Interesting hub. I'd never heard of this disorder before.
As a general comment, one of the things that makes your hubs so interesting is the sheer breadth of your knowledge and interests. One never knows what you'll be writing about next, and that's interesting.
Regards.
Thanks, Doc! :)
Wow, I had no idea. I can relate to everything on here... and all these years I just thought they just didn't feel like teaching me math (being a girl in a small town and all.) I did fine in math until algebra too. It was then they gave up all hope and shoved me in the SPED class... where I learned a calculating patience and how not to kill my peers. (Though don't get me wrong, had 'teach turned her back just once a few of them would have gone missing.)
Thanks for this informative article!
Wow, I had no idea that there was even such a thing. If I did, I might have realized that I seem to have it, which would have made a huge difference in adapting to it. :P Something I have found that's useful in the inability to calculate math in my head that you might be using or might want to use is to get a cell phone that has a calculator in it (even better if it has a tip calculator), and take that with you, whether the phone has service or not. It really does help with the inability to calculate numbers. :)
It took me such a long time to be able to tell the analog clock. Directions..... ugh not my specialty either. Currently I have a specific math learning disability and have ADHD.... the AdHD has gotten better thanks to neurofeedback! An awesome thing that! Oh yea... just because you have a learning disability doesn't mean you're stupid! I actually excel in language. I'm pretty ok in science( except biology! ick!) history is ok(Currently I'm taking Economics!) .... the math.... I feel your pain!
Never heard of it....I have no problems with directions (always can orient myself east west, etc, and I have had no problems telling time...or learning. I can roughly calculate percentages in my head, but I don't know HOW I do it.
BUT I have always had trouble transcribing or typing numbers, and sometimes early on, trouble remembering numbers. They start to float around on the paper. I have somewhat overcome it, but in early years it belied my IQ! Numbers are part of my work, so I am very very careful and do the math 2 or 3 times, even though I was usually right the first time.
Well, I think I have it. I just didn't know there was a name for it. I just cannot hold numbers in my head--still have to count on my fingers to do simple addition(thank God for calculators) and have a lousy sense of direction. As a kid they were always shaking their heads about my tests. In 6th grade my reading comprehension tested at college level, but Icould not do long division and had to have special tutoring. Don't even ask about algebra and geometry. I don't know how I got through them. When I took the SAT's a million years ago Igot in the high 700's on the verbal and the low 400'son the math aptitude. I remember the college counselor told me I had a "lopsided mind"LOL. INteresting to run across this hub. Think I'lldo a little google search. Funny, just made a related comment on the forums. Whaddaya know.
Honestly, I've always had a sneaking suspicion I've had dyscalcula, though I've never gone and looked much up or went to go have it diagnosed or anything. I've learned to cope with many of these same symptoms (for the most part... I'm still completely lost the second I put foot out of my doorway...)
Excellent hub, and thanks for posting it!
...I love you for posting this! Too few people know about dyscalculia, even now; when I was at school, next to nobody knew about it- as with you.
The main problem, I think, is that it's not as obvious as dyslexia. After all, all subjects include reading and writing- history, geography, even art. Maths, less so, but there was still some. There's going to be a red flag going up somewhere if a child's having difficulty in ALL these lessons, despite trying and having the intelligence.
Me, I was smart; and did well in almost every subject. But when it came to maths- and physics once equations kicked in- I was lost. I couldn't understand. Even now, the only way I can work things out is through patterns.
Luckily, I'm very good at spotting patterns, and can work out basic equations (such as adding xx.xx and yy.yy together, for example, what the tip plus the bill comes to.) But make it anything more complicated and I'm lost.
Whilst it took me a very long time to learn to tell the time (as with you) I can actually imagine a clock, and mentally move the hands to work out what time it would be in x hours and yy minutes. In short, I've worked out ways to cope with it; and even though I was told constantly I was "lazy" in maths class and it was constantly put down to a lack of effort, nowadays there's very few red flags to give me away. In fact, I would say that over-compensating my entire life has made me quicker on my feet (metaphorically) than many people who never needed to think too hard about it.
Yes!!! I have had issues with every single thing you mentioned. Clocks, math, reading sheet music (even though I can compose music and play by ear quite well). I just learned that my daughter has dyslexia. There is a genetic component to all this. Great, very imformative hub. I like you writing style as well.
I have to navigate even familiar places by landmark. I have trouble with step by step anything. I do have difficulty with math but have learned to compensate by reading the teacher's mind for the answers. ;-)
I took Algebra 3 times and failed it all times. I took history and government and failed them too. It wasn't what happened that I forgot it was the dates that they happened that I couldn't ever remember. I took finance and failed it because I could not remember which went on what side of the equation. Although if you tell me --it makes perfect sense, it is when I do it myself that it gets totally confusing. I don't even get it as to why it works -r shall I say --doesn't work that way in my brain.
Thanks for the article.
After posting this I remembered something else. I remember having to stay after school in 6th grade to learn my times tables.
I think i have it especially with the time thing im 13 and still can only tell time by a digital clock
Kenny Wordsmith says:
2 years ago
I don't have it except for getting lost and being utterly hopeless finding a place I've been to even twice, but I learnt that you are 31!