Oh my gosh, I'm so happy to find this forum. I'm undiagnosed, but am 100% sure I have dyscalculia. I fit 95% of the symptoms and when I read that "letter to my math teacher" I started to cry. I even typed in the wrong security numbers the first time when I registered for the forums It was just so relieving to hear that maybe the problem isn't that I'm stupid.
I find it odd how so many of what I consider to be my personality quirks - inability to read an analog watch, poor (nonexistent) sense of direction, hard time with names, difficulty reading music (despite 12 years of piano) are related to dyscalculia.
I can recall all too many times when I would sit frozen in math class, panicked, on the verge of tears, unable to understand even a tiny bit of what everyone around me was doing so effortlessly. I even had a math teacher inform my parents that I shouldn't go to college (even though I had A's in all my other courses). I have undergrad and grad degrees and I even used statistics in my thesis. Statistics were much easier for me to understand because a lot of it is theory - it uses arithmetic but involves a different way of thinking than other mathematics. It was still more difficult for me than for anyone else in the class, but I was stubborn.
Currently I'm a manager working in retail (yes, with the dreaded cash register). I don't seem to have as much trouble with operational order as some of you, but I still have a mini panic each time someone hands me cash. I count and re-count change compulsively before handing it back. My duties as a manager involve closing the registers (counting all the money to make sure our tallies match up) and withdrawing deposits. It's terrifying, but I take a deep breath and do it.
My new panic is that we have a new regional manager (boss's boss's boss) and he will be cold calling stores and asking questions like, "how many people are in the store right now? What percentage are you to your goal? (i.e., how much have you made today and how does it compare to how much you should make today), and other questions that involve quick math thinking.
I'm freaking out. Should I disclose to my boss that I have a disability? Will this seem like I'm making excuses? Have any of you disclosed, and has this helped or hurt you at work?
Location: Texas USA Posts: 6135 Joined: 2008-05-25
2/10/10
Dear Luey,
Welcome to the forum. That's quite a job you have there. Congratulations on your 'degree and the grad degree', and on doing your Thesis on Statistics. I can see how that could happen, and even how you've managed to do that retail job. I can do arithmetic, and I got an A in PreAlgebra. I've worked in the County Tax office, handling huge sums of money in my cash drawer, for very little pay. And my drawer had to balance perfectly every day. Any deficit over $7.00 would have been my responsibility to pay back. But, having said that, I can still say that your job probably leaves you feeling much tireder than it would a person who is not dyscalculic.
We've had a recent discussion here on whether 'to tell, or not to tell. That is the question', and we mostly ended split down the middle, as I recall. The worry that 'coming clean' would be viewed as using dyscalculia as an excuse, is, in fact, one of the things that has been mentioned during this type of discussion here. My own thought about this is that, although people shouldn't think that of us, there's such an ignorance on the subject of Learning Disabilities, that, yes, that can happen. It shouldn't, but it can.
Again, welcome. You'll have lots of new friends here. I hope that you've set up your profile so that you'll get an email notification when someone sends you a PM (Private Message). Sometimes there will be something interesting months down the road, and that notification is the only way to find folks who've gotten busy with other things and haven't logged in lately. - jus'
Congrats on your degrees and stay away from the cash register haha. I have panic attacks when someone gives me cash and I have to count it. Now if its for my own keeping i just stash it away lol.
I dream of a better tomorrow...
Where chicken can cross raods and not have their motives questioned.
I was formally diagnosed in college and received accommodations. Disclosure depends on individual circumstance....in my job as a case manger working w/people with cognitive disabilities - developmental disabilities, on autism spectrum, etc. - disclosing actually helped me both in relating to the clients I worked with as well as with the staff, because it allowed me accommodations and understanding at work, too. I have also had jobs which I lost due to both my LD and my recent hearing "loss". Technically if in the U.S., and mostly if one is actually diagnosed, disclosing CAN provide you some protected status under ADA - but again that can be "in theory". However, if you don't disclose and/or you aren't diagnosed, it will be very difficult if not impossible to gain any protected status on the basis of "just not good with math" or "learning difference".
I tend to disclose ONCE I get the JOB - because that way everyone has all the info. and I am not ashamed, this is part of who I am. If other workers/supervisor know, then there is a much better chance of all of us working together and making things successful for everyone. If they don't know, how can they learn anything about how to work with me? IF I was to need accommodations for specifically the interview - then in order to GET those, then I would need to disclose to human resources or staffing or whatever - so I have potential to perform at same level as peers w/o LD.
Location: Chicagoland, IL Posts: 41 Joined: 2009-08-31
I am still lacking a formal diagnosis due to lack of funding to cover testing, however, I also fit so many of the standard symptoms that I can think of no other cause for them.
- Inability to read analog clocks
- Inability to read or draw maps
- Very poor overall spatial skills (precalc is murdering me with the trig functions...)
- Transposing numbers and mathematical signs
- Horrible with names AND with faces. I cannot pick out a person from others unless I have known them a long time.
- Excellent verbal skills
- Difficulties with time
- I could get lost in a paper back with a neon exit sign
- Difficulties with athletics involving sequential processing skills: dance, martial arts, competative horseback riding (all of which I enjoy...)
The only one that does not really fit me is mathematical concepts. I can understand the concepts quite well, and once I have them memorized, they stick with me. However, I do often blank out on tests, but I think that is due to anxiety.
8 + 1x = 0.04x IS the same as 8 + 1x = 0.4x, I swear it is! (And I had to check this 5 times to make sure I had written that [in]correctly!)
It was just so relieving to hear that maybe the problem isn't that I'm stupid.
