Well, I'm not excactly sure how to start, so I'll wing it!
I'm a full time university student in Canada, and I have always, always been horrible at math (spelling too, but that's gotten a lot better). Especially fractons and times tables as a kid. Word problems are a mystery to me, and no matter how many times I write down a series of numbers, they always end up as being different and you can give me a phone number and I'll either forget it or not write it down correctly. My parents have always supported me and helped out when I was struggling with math, but most of the time I'd try to do the question and end up in tears because I kept getting it wrong.
By the time I was in grade 8, I was tested by the school... tester person, and I was found to be exceptional in reading and comprehenson, but my math was about second grade and my spelling was illegable so I got tossed into the 'remedial class'. After years of bullying (which started in elementary school), I dropped out in grade 10 and that was it for the longest time until my mother dragged me to our local community college and we signed up for classes (just one class to start with, nothing too heavy).
I'm crap at change too, but I'm fairly good when it comes to shopping (% are a lost art to me though) and I'm usually spot on with prices and taxes.
I actually came across this dyscalculia through a question posted in one of my classes today, and I read the definition on wikipedia, felt this light bulb go on overhead, and found this site. After reading a couple of posts, I was astonished to find out that I wasn't alone with the issues and problems I come across.
Location: Texas USA Posts: 6101 Joined: 2008-05-25
1/24/12
Hi CoastGurl,
Cute name! I can cashier, and I've had to do this to make a living, but I'd rather do almost anything else instead of this. Isn't it just the most amazing feeling on the day that you first find out about dyscalculia? Story after story here on the forum tells about this wonderful, freeing, experience. I'm at college in the computer room, and it's almost 11 at night. I'm not much fun right now. But I just wanted to say 'hi' and 'welcome'. - jus'
I was diagnosed with math LD in college after continually failing remedial college math. I was also tired of having such issues with analog clocks and so I read up on the possibility and self-referred to Disabled Student Services. I was born a couple of months premature and was in Special Ed as a kid for speech and language and in a "special" gym class spontaneously arranged during my 7th or 8th grade years, for kids who didn't "fit"/perform average or well in that class. It was held in a large utility room where they stored the weight equipment and mats etc. The teacher would come in and give us - about 6 -8 of us - our assignment and then go back out to the main floor where everybody else was. It was a mixed group of "outsiders" and "just-not-popular" kids - a very obese girl, someone who was electively mute etc . A couple of the kids who were in there were one of my many bullies on the "outside" and they themselves were also bullied. My mom found out about arrangement that and was she pissed.
So, I've always had trouble with sequence, spatial orientation, some motor skills <putting gloves on and learning to suck through a straw as a young child for example>, handwriting issues in elementary grades....didn't learn to tell time or count money til high school. Still have difficulty with those things and have never worn a watch. I was also allegedly born with missing inner ear bones.
Always in highest reading and writing groups, took AP English and Bio in high school and went to an arts specialty high school.
I still count on my fingers - and don't hide it. I take extra time in line and often get change wrong.
I tend to think in pictures and have difficulty with spoken or written multi-step directions...units of measurement mean nothing to me <feet, inches>. I don't know how to use a ruler.
But LD was never caught.
I graduated from my university with a double major in Spanish and Sociology and for a time was case manager working with people with cognitive disabilities and on the severe end of the autism spectrum.
Diagnosis really has the potential to hold the key to putting someone with LD on the same level starting point as their peers. I was tested free through my Vocational Rehab agency as my parent's dependent, and also based on family income.
Thanks for welcoming me! I've been through some parts of the forums and I'm really surprised that the things that have stumped me have stumped others! RottiWoman, thank you for sharing your story! My mother had a difficult birth with me (well, we both almost in the process), and I count on my fingers too (I'm actually pretty ashamed of that, mainly because I feel like I should know it, even though I don't), and I'm kinda good at measurements, but tell me something is so-and-so kilometers away and I'll give a blank stare. I'm currently doing a double minor in Education and History in a bachelor degree program that doesn't require math (thank god!) just quantitative requirements instead.
So my math isn't that good, and my spelling doesn't always make sense, but I try and that's really the only thing you can do in life.
Great to see you here. From what you wrote above, it would seem we have quite a great deal in common. I can't do fractions either. % means absolutely nothing to me. I still count on my fingers (like you, I find it embarrassing too) and I carry a calculator with me everywhere I go.
I despise it when someone tells me something is so and so km away. I usually smile my "dumb blonde" smile (yes, I'm naturally blonde and I've taken full advantage of the stereotype) and tell them I don't do metric.
Anyway, welcome again and I look forward to reading more of your posts.
Ladyhawke
Algebra? When I learn decimals and fractions, you're welcome to try teaching me, but unless you have the patience of a saint and are very long-lived, good luck with that...
I'm a brunette, but I'm also quite ditzy at time (I tend to misread things all the time) and I'm really tempted to just dye it blonde and surrender
Ladyhawke wrote:
Hi CoastGurl and welcome to the forums!
Great to see you here. From what you wrote above, it would seem we have quite a great deal in common. I can't do fractions either. % means absolutely nothing to me. I still count on my fingers (like you, I find it embarrassing too) and I carry a calculator with me everywhere I go.
I despise it when someone tells me something is so and so km away. I usually smile my "dumb blonde" smile (yes, I'm naturally blonde and I've taken full advantage of the stereotype) and tell them I don't do metric.
Anyway, welcome again and I look forward to reading more of your posts.
Ladyhawke
So my math isn't that good, and my spelling doesn't always make sense, but I try and that's really the only thing you can do in life.
