Hi, I'm strobes, 25-years old. I've been thinking a lot recently about the fact that I seem to be pretty much useless at a lot of really basic tasks, and wondering why that is, because on the whole I'm fairly intelligent - around 140 IQ - and have always done well academically. Stumbled across dyscalulia somehow on google, and it seemed accurate to a degree, and since I don't really have the time/money to actually get tested, I was hoping you guys could give me some feedback as to whether or not it seems like I might have this.
My symptoms:
- I am the absolute worst person I have ever met at directions. I have to go a route probably 20 times before I'll remember it - doesn't matter how short. I will get lost going around the corner. I will get lost in the building at work. When I come up out of the subway, I ALWAYS choose the wrong direction. No mental map whatsoever.
- I can't read analog clocks. At all. Don't really understand why anyone would choose to subject themselves to THAT when there are so many digital clocks readily available.
- My perception of distances, amounts and time is TERRIBLE. Ask me how far the bus stop is, I won't know if it's 100 yards or a mile. Ask me how much flour is in the bowl, I won't know if it's one cup or two. Ask me how much time has passed, I won't know if it's been 10 minutes or 40.
- I'm not really good at long term financial planning. I tend to just avoid spending money as a rule so as not to deal with it.
- I'm bad at names and faces. It's taken me, on certain occasions, six months of interacting with someone on a semi-regular basis to get their name down.
- I've always been good at writing and creative activities, with the exception of music.
BUT:
- I'm good at math. I'm very logically minded, so the theories involved have never been an issue. There were a few times in grade school when I forgot how to do long division or subtraction seemingly overnight, and maybe I'm not the best at arithmetic/calculations, but at more advanced math I'm actually well above average. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that the more advanced math you get into, the fewer numbers are involved? I don't know.
- Left versus right has never been an issue, that I can remember.
Anyways, I'm really not sure if I have this. It explains a lot of my little issues that frequently make me feel like an idiot, but at the same time, I really have always been good at math. I skipped a level of math in high school, took the most accelerated calculus course available and regularly got the highest grades in the class. I don't LIKE math, and I've largely avoided it ever since, pursuing writing and media work instead. But it still seems like a pretty big discrepancy: can I be good at math and still have dyscalculia?
Location: Texas USA Posts: 6136 Joined: 2008-05-25
8/6/12
Hi Strobes,
I'd say that, at the very least, you've found the right forum. :-)
Okay, here's 'me': No problem with right and left. Can't remember people's names,... sometimes not even after it's become tiresome to the other person to keep telling me. Can do arithmetic, for the same reasons that you gave!... that I have very good logic. Am not good at financial planning,... hate looking at the numbers,... but I survive, just like you by just 'trying not to spend money'. And now, here are our differences: I can read clocks just fine. I know north, south, east, west. I can judge quantities of ingredients, and some distances (especially when they are in the realm of a relationship to natural body measurements). And, I can't do algebra.
I think that my inability to do algebra is strongly related to my memory problems and a deficiency in abstract reasoning.
If we didn't have a high IQ, we couldn't have gotten as far as we have. I'm grateful for what I've still got 'working'. - jus'
Part of math LD or dyscalculia is having average or above-average intelligence, doing well in most or all other subjects and still struggling heavily with many things math-based - a struggle which doesn't "fit" with the overall achievement profile for the individual.
Some people with math LD do better in some areas of math than others but it ends up that there's still enough of a discrepancy to warrant further investigation. I'm one of the folks who does not do well with any math of most any kind, whether that's geometry or algebra or subtraction or units of measurement or....
To be honest, the only way - and the way most likely to offer you any kind of actual assistance especially if you're in the U.S. - to get an accurate determination of dyscalculia is through formal testing by someone who is familiar with MATH learning disability and who has tested for it in ADULTS. We can just give you opinions but you can decide how useful that is for you....
There are other types of LD too such as non-verbal LD...if you wish to give us a general area where you are <region>, maybe we could give you some links for more info. there....my state's Voc. rehab services paid for my testing. There may be ways around the financial aspect if you are interested-
