Hey all. I was over joyed to find this website - I've lived with Dyscalculia my whole life, and have found it a very difficult and embarrassing subject to bring up, often met with jeers or incomprehension, even within my family. Discovering a spot on the web where I can read about others experiences and share my own is great - something I never thought I'd find!
Location: Texas USA Posts: 6101 Joined: 2008-05-25
7/6/11
Glad to be of service, Waylon. I felt the same way when I found this site three years ago. The young woman who started it is Danish, and only finished her college degree about a year ago. She'd dropped out of school before finding out about dyscalculia. She thought that it was such a shame that so few people know about it that she started this site.
I know what you mean about the 'jeers'. People's knee jerk reaction is to contradict you when you say that you 'can't' do something, algebra included. By the end of High School, one reason that I didn't go to college was just so that I wouldn't have to be defending myself for not being able to do algebra. I'm an older older female, so back then, there were no 'accommodations' for having a learning disability, and dyscalculia was only beginning to be recognized. I would have suffered a lot if I'd gone to Uni back then. Others say that they learn a lot reading from this site. Enjoy your stay. Others will be along soon. - jus'
P.S. I see that the 'counter' over on the left side says that this is my 4800th post. And it's your 1st. So, you are only a little ways behind me. ;)
Edited by justfoundout on July 06 2011 09:42 PM
Thanks for the greetings! I don't know if I can make it up to 4800 posts, but that's an admirable number.
I'm curious - when did you two first start to notice that you had trouble with numbers?
Location: Texas USA Posts: 6101 Joined: 2008-05-25
7/6/11
I think that when I was in the 4th grade was when I realized that 'being smart' wasn't helping me. Couldn't remember the times tables. Knew I could only do math by counting on my fingers. Got 'beat' at the blackboard by a taller, male, classmate in a team race to do long multiplication. My team was totally disappointed, as it was 'game point'. I just couldn't seem to 'count fingers' as fast as "K." could summon up his mentally archived 'times tables'. It was downhill from there, except for a brief reprieve in High School geometry class, when I perked up again. - jus'
Edited by justfoundout on July 06 2011 11:10 PM
I first noticed probably about second grade, with things like subtraction and addition - especially subtraction. Subtraction made no sense to me for the longest time. Also we had "penmanship" classes at that time and we had this paper with lines on it to practice the cursive strokes on, and I had problems staying on the line; my printing was also variously small, awkward and slanted off the lines or was un-even. My friends were learning about using a clock and playing playground games that I had great trouble with. Also had difficulty learning to suck through a straw - so those were all very early signs in general.
Thanks for the stories - pretty much my experience as well! I think the defining moment for me was the first grade. Up until then (i.e Kindergarden) Math had always involved the counting and separating of multi - colored beans, which I had liked, being a visually oriented kid.
However, that year the teacher passes out these sheets of paper with number problems on them (printed in that awful, purplish ink used for school assignments - anyone remember that?). I was confused - it was like reading Greek. But my friends and classmates seemed unfazed, and began number crunching immediately. I thought 'did I miss the phone call? Did everyone get together over summer, work out how to do this, and not tell me?' I ended up in the Special Education room during Math period, which was equally embarrassing, as it was known as the 'retard room' to my friends, who, of course, quickly stopped being my friends. Ugh!
And indeed Tamsen, you really CAN find everything on the internet! Amazing. Just reading up on 'Dyscalculia' was a revelation, and one I probably wouldn't have had without an internet connection.
Waylon, I was in Special Education -Pull-out from kindergarten to 6th grade; I actually still have some of my IEP's <which my mom kept, for whatever reason and recently gave to me>. The Resource Room was located in a separate wing of the school, which had its own doors, own playground, own teachers and aides, own lunch hour, classrooms, buses etc. Even its own smell. My Speech teacher would come to get me cuz I couldn't read the clock and of course, everyone knew I went there but it was some mystery to them and I got the "R" word and worse, all the time. I was also a shy, physically awkward, socially <in school situations> inept kid so it was really difficult, especially as I got into middle school <the "regulars" here may recall my telling this>. Middle school here is about 7th-8th grade so the kids were physically much bigger, and there were weapons and other issues involved in an urban area. Actually saw my first gang fight in about 5th grade - watched it happen at the park across the street from my elementary school.
But anyway, middle school was MUCH more physical and I was always afraid.
Throughout my early school years I was forced to play playground games and sports in gym classes where I had no understanding what was going on, and teachers always just assumed I'd somehow "get it" or that I had observed enough of the activity to understand it. Students purposely threw the balls used in various sports at me to cause pain and there was a lot of abuse.
I was often pulled aside by a teacher for "extra help" in gym, or for assistance through a more adept student and was in a impromptu "special" gym class for a while in middle school, which took place in the gym area's utility room. The teacher decided to put a bunch of us "misfits" in there together without consulting any parents or the principle and did my mom get pissed....of course, that was one of the many opportunities available to look more closely at my difficulties - but nothing came of it.
Location: Texas USA Posts: 6101 Joined: 2008-05-25
7/7/11
Waylon, you got me started by mentioning the old purple ink copies. Those were 'memeographs', remember? And by the time I got to the part where you said, "But my friends and classmates seemed unfazed, and began number crunching immediately. I thought 'did I miss the phone call? Did everyone get together over summer, work out how to do this, and not tell me?'",... I was laughing out loud. And then, for your next words to say that that inability landed you in the Special Education room,... gasp,... it's so bizarre that it reads like a sitcom,... sort of a Scrubbs, only about Elementary school.
My closest story to that would be when I took Geometry and Business Math to get out of doing Algebra II in High School. Geometry was my friend. But the Business Math class was just adding columns and columns of numbers. And when you'd look around the classroom, there was this array of every single failure in the school,... bored, mad at life,... just doing their time. And there I was, meticulously working every single problem to the best of my ability. LOL. Even the dear old teacher was bored. He must have marveled at how I could be so enthusiastic about adding those columns of numbers. It was just the first time I'd been given math that I actually understood. I'm laughing now until my stomach muscles are wearing out, just thinking of my own innocence. I mean, I actually thought that that class was 'Business Math', not 'reject's math'.
BTW, when I was 'School Patrol Girl' in sixth grade,... the one who got to wear the white band belted across my chest, and who held the kids back until it was safe to cross the street,... I also got called to the office to run off copies on the mimeograph machine. The fumes were so strong that it's a wonder no one got 'hooked' on that stuff,.. or brain damage while running the machine,... Hmmm. Come to think of it...
You had to hand crank the memeograph machine,... just in case anyone is interested in knowing. - jus'
Edited by justfoundout on July 08 2011 12:38 AM
'Just', thanks for filling me on on what those damn purple sheets were. I STILL hate them! And I STILL feel like I missed the phone call on a pretty regular basis, I've just grown accustomed to it in my older age.
'Rottie', sounds like you had a real rough time of it! Although we had a similar, separate school for kids, but you had to be a juvenile delinquent to go. I actually really wanted to - a lot of my friends went there (we were all cutting class to go smoke cigarettes and whathaveyou) but I was more apathetic than rebellious, or just not 'bad' enough, so I had to duke it out in normal school, with two periods devoted to Special Ed. I kept it a pretty guarded secret among my friends, loathing the 'you just need to try harder' speech I was bound to get.
These days, I keep it pretty out in the open. Especially at jobs, I just flat out tell them that although I can perform the tasks of the job, I'm slow with the numbers, and will be counting with my fingers and using a calculator, especially if counting out the cash register is required. Most just laugh it off until they see me spending the next hour sweating it!
Location: Texas USA Posts: 6101 Joined: 2008-05-25
7/9/11
I'm glad you came back to give us a follow up. When I'd first come to this forum, we had Threads where someone would mention that there are an over-abundance of people with LD's who are incarcerated. I have a Paralegal degree (unable to 'be' a paralegal, though), so hearing that LD's (Learning Disabilities) contributed to people ending up in jail got me to thinking about how this can happen. BTW, one reason I didn't go to college after HS was that I didn't want to hear the 'you just need to try harder' speech. - jus'
Hey Just, funny, the reason I dropped out of college was for the same reason! I was of the mindset that 'I've already had twelve years of this, I'm out!". Besides, I wanted to study film - you don't really need college for all that.
How did you eventually come to your paralegal degree?
hi again, Waylon and thanks for your response on my "story".
I think at that age especially it's pretty common to try and keep things to oneself that one fears may make you appear even more "different" than you feel you already are.
I got the "try harder" thing too-
In job situations I always disclose now after I have the job and I don't hide my "finger-counting" or any of my "slowness" with certain things.
Location: Texas USA Posts: 6101 Joined: 2008-05-25
7/12/11
Hi Waylon,
I'd done a year and a half of college before knowing about dyscalculia, then quit when I would have had to move up from arithmetic (Pre-Algebra) to beginning algebra (Elementary Algebra, which is another developmental math course. I took a job that lasted ten years. When that job ended, I went back to college. Doing Paralegal meant that I could take all the paralegal classes and leave the math for last. So, that's what I did, with a 3.8 GPA,... until I couldn't graduate due to the math. When I started having to take math, even though developmental classes didn't count against my GPA, I was just so tired of not having a decent job or making enough money, that my GPA started to go down. Plus, since I'd finished everything but the math, I was having to keep finding more classes to take, just so that I could be in school the required 6 credits to get the Pell Grant. I came up with some interesting combinations, <secret lol> Metal Jewelry Making and Elementary Algebra; Intro to French and Elementary Algebra; and finally, Intro to Music and Elementary Algebra. You may have noticed that the only 'constant' was that I kept taking Elementary Algebra,... yes, failing it three times. Then, due to those failures, I lost my Funding. So, I appealed to a cc in another county and got in! (Jumping to the end here.) After my diagnosis, I took Logic to replace College Algebra and got my Paralegal diploma from that previous c. college. Then, I finished my AA. Now, I'm a BA in Art student at Uni, where they are allowing me to substitute all my maths. - jus'
glad you met 'jus! good to see you found us!
Glad to have you here!