To tjhink I might have some kind of learning disability?

[Skinit]

It's Maths. I've always been awful at it. In school, I used to shake with fear when the teacher said to get maths books out of our desks.

I got a U in GCSE maths and didn't learn to tell the time till I was in my 20s.

I just get confused and mixed up when I try to work things out...I can't remember phone numbers either....

I just needed to work out what 10% of £10.00 is for a work related thing...and I can't do it.

I have nobody around to ask...can you tell me what it is and also if there is something going on here...it's a bit late for treatment I know. At 38 I've learned to cope but it is a right pain at times.

I'm not daft...I work as a freelance writer and have a good degree. But as a self employed writer, there are times when it's a real disability.

Bloodymofo. So it's OK to have a word for being bad at reading (dyslexia) but not ok to have a word for being bad at maths? Hmmm. I'm good at English, shit at maths. Never thought I had a learning difficulty. Just the way I am. Worked my tits off to get a pass at GCSE in maths. Sometimes I think people over-think things.

Sorry, I should clarify. What I meant was, dyslexia organizations could be a good place to start, depending of course on what it's like in your area of the country. That's because they may well have seen people who struggle with maths, and may well be good at teaching them.

Of course it's also perfectly possible you don't have a learning disability, or that you don't have that learning disability. But I know that some dyslexia organizations find themselves working with people who're not strictly or simply dyslexic, and they may also know good teachers to pass you on to.

There's a fair amount of disagreement about what dyslexia and dyscalculia actually are, but people who teach adults tend ime to focus on helping that specific person, not on worrying about the specifics of diagnoses. Dyslexia could include for example problems with patterns, sequences, short-term memory. All these could affect maths skills.

For example, my short-term memory is very poor and my digit span is abysmal. I can't hold a number in my head for long, and that really doesn't help my maths. Other dyslexics find they struggle to understand patterns or sequences, so don't find times tables or rote-learned mathematical formulae easy.

i really couldnt get a grasp of maths at all at school.2 years ago i made myself do a maths course with the adult education centre.i explained i hated maths and it hated me.and that i didnt even know the basics but needed to try something as the dc were catching up on me.
my teacher at the adult ed centre was fantastic,she explained maths using things we do everyday without realising were using maths-baking cakes,cutting pizza,waiting for buses!she made it all so easy and i just seemed to 'get it' as an older student!i got equivalant to a c grade gcse!-proud!which was much much better than before.
she gave me confidence and i wasnt afraid to ask questions.

hammy - the issue is this (as I understand it):

We know there's such a thing as acquired dyscalculia. This is when a person suffers some kind of brain injury, such as a stroke, which damages a very specific part of the brain. The person then can't seem to grasp the concept of numbers, which is very serious.

We also know there's such a thing as acquired dyslexia, where a part of the brain is damaged and the person loses ability to read.

We don't know exactly how either case relates to developmental dyslexia/dyscalculia. A developmental learning disability tends to be less easy to understand than an acquired one, because the brain hasn't suffered sudden, local damage.

Some people reckon that dyslexia describes the same fundamental problems as dyscalculia, and that if you have a diagnosis of dyscalculia, it isn't really very different from having a diagnosis of dyslexia. A lot of the underlying problems you'd have, would be exactly the same for both: eg., if you struggle to memorize the shapes and sequences of squiggles on the page, it doesn't matter if those squiggles are letters or numbers!

Mind you, plenty of people do diagnose discalculia and feel it's useful, especially in a case like the OP's where she obviously has strong abilities in literacy. I just wanted to say to her that she shouldn't automatically discount dyslexia organizations when she's looking for help with her maths.

MoFo, I think that's true of most people. The brain needs exercise to keep it fit. But once you understand something, refreshing it won't take as much as learning did in the first place, IYSWIM.

I agree about relearning from scratch. It is possible that you got left behind or stuck at an early stage of your [maths] education and therefore were unable to build upon your existing knowledge. It is the same as building a house, every layer of brick has to be properly laid to support the next. I think a lot of people have problems with maths, we tend not to properly understand then bluff our way through until we can drop the subject.

Incidentally I can't remember any phone numbers, apart from my own landline which actually took me years to learn. I also have a massive difficulty in remembering dates, even my own children's birthdays. I actually cannot remember the dates of my parents deaths. I can do maths though, at least I can still help my 14 year old with his homework. I think this may be due to the way I was taught.

I can't copy down phone numbers, or transfer phone numbers from my mobile to my landline phone or vice versa - they just end up incorrect.

Dyscalculia is a learning difficulty which affects maths skills.

Dyspraxia is my diagnosis although the school suspected dyscalculia, with dyspraxia it's very common for people to have either dyslexia or dyscalculia as well. Or to have a strong over lap with them. My maths skills are so poor I have dyscalculia as well.

dyscalculia

dyspraxia

Still can't tell the time, I have two rights and no left and when I roll dice I have to manually count each dot to know the score, if I get a 5 and a 4 I won't automatically think 'oh, that's 9' - I have to count each dot, 1-9 to realise.

I think that remembering phone numbers is not exactly a mathematical skill - you aren't doing calculations with the numbers in a phone number, they are equivalent to a string of letters or symbols. I'm reasonably good at maths (did A level) but no good at remembering phone numbers.

Are you sure it isn't just a hangover of fear from Maths at school?

My earliest memory from school was being shouted at by my teacher in infant school because I couldn't add up (it was probably one plus one). I was a summer born child and I think this was an issue. I continued to be shit at Maths throughout my school career and terrified of all Maths teachers. I have always regarded myself as inumerate.

A few years ago, I did a fairly thorough psychometric test as part of a careers course. I came out strongly in all areas around mathematical ability. At the end of the course, it was suggested I should try careers in banking and accountancy!!

I also found maths quite scary and actually sat in statistics classes at uni (where I did a social science involving maths) in tears. This went on for years, until I bought an idiots guide to statistics and started at page 1. I managed to understand why I hadn't got it, I hadn't got any of the basics right and so it just leapt on in its mysterious language of squiggles and symbols and I was left behind. Once I'd got the very basic basics sorted and started working hard on it (so not running away every time I was scared) I started to get on fine and carried on with statistics up to Masters level.

But fear of maths is very common.

Hmm. You could have dyscalculia or a psychological block or perhaps a combination of the two.

Don't write yourself off. If you're panicking about something, whether it be a sum, how to use a semi-colon, or getting a stuck drawer open, it gets more difficult to do.

Enrol on an adult learning course.

Two books you might find useful.

Maths for Mums and Dads by Rob Easterway
www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=maths+for+mums+and+dad&x=0&y=0

I used to know that - Maths by Chris Waring
www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_3_25?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=i+used+to+know+that+maths&sprefix=i+used+to+know+that+maths

I've never tried links before.

Two books you might find useful.

Maths for Mums and Dads by Rob Easterway
www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=maths+for+mums+and+dad&x=0&y=0

I used to know that - Maths by Chris Waring
www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_3_25?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=i+used+to+know+that+maths&sprefix=i+used+to+know+that+maths

I've never tried links before, so I hope they work.

No idea why it posted twice.

OP, We sound like the same person! I got a U in maths but As in English Lang and Lit. I hated maths, was sick and terrified in lessons, as you describe. I couldnt tell the time for years - why on earth would you say 25 to, when the hand is pointing at the 7????? Aged 11, I quietly went up to the teacher and asked him to remind me which side was the perimeter of a rectangle. He pretended to fall about laughing, then got the whole class to listen as he told them what I'd said and they all started chanting "ohhhhhhhhhhh haaaaaappppyyyymummmmmmyyyyy". I will never forget how i felt and after that maths became an enormous mental block.

Do you remember those books of cosines, sines and tangents we had to take into the o level? I had absolutely not a scoobie what that was for and when confronted by any question to do with angles or sides of a triangle, would just open it, close my eyes and stab book with my compass - and whatever number I harpooned would be my answer! I promise you no one was worse at maths than me.

But now, aged 43, i have become determined not to spend the rest of my life believing i have some kind of problem, because i know i don't and I'm sure you dont either. It was simply CRAP CRAP CRAP teaching and a huge lack of self confidence.

I recently started printing off old gcse maths papers from the net and working through them. Anything you don't understand, just google and consult the bbc gcse bitesize maths revision pages - utter brilliance! Have a go, its hugely empowering when you get the questions right and you suddenly realise its not frightening at all.

He pretended to fall about laughing, then got the whole class to listen as he told them what I'd said and they all started chanting

That's an appalling way for a teacher to behave. I doubt they'd get away with that attitude these days. I think that's one way that teaching has improved.

It's good you've overcome it now.

That's horrible, happy. What a disgusting thing to do.

happy something similar happened to me too - my book was ripped up in the middle of the class and was told I wasn't trying HARD ENOUGH!! I still remember the teacher struggling to rip the book in half, he was SO angry. I was only about 7 ffs!

Bastard

I am hoping that I am secretly brilliant at maths and by me doing this course it will just confirm what an utter twat he was!

My ds really struggled with arithmetic. He still (now an adult) doesn't know number pairs and would have to count up to know that 3 and 7 makes 10. He managed to grasp the concepts of quite a lot of Maths though as long as there was some "English" round it (if the questions were posed as problems, rather than just numbers).

My dd found the reverse. She hated Maths questions that were cluttered up with words.

I remember trying to help ds with his homework and having to send dd out into the hall because, even though she was three years younger, she would get to the answer in 3 seconds flat and "helpfully" tell ds the answer. This drove him mad of course and was totally humiliating for him. Sending her out wasn't hugely successful as she could still hear the questions and shouted the answers through the door....

Sorry, totally useless anecdote .

Ds still does his best to avoid anything to do with arithmetic, but if he doesn't feel judged or rushed he can usually manage. He is very successful in many other areas. I do think you might find that a sympathetic teacher could really help you, whilst accepting that lots of people do hit a brick wall with Maths.

I know people who have studied Maths at very advanced levels who have told me that most people do hit a wall somewhere. For some people that can be very early on, for others they will sail on blissfully for many years, but will still hit a wall eventually. It's only if you want to see over the wall (whenever you encounter it) that you can summon up the energy/interest/determination to scale it (or knock it down, depending on your metaphor of choice).

Bloody hell. Waffle. Sorry

I didn't do well at maths in school. Loads of stuff I just didn't understand. Last year, I went to our local adult education centre and got a GCSE Grade C at the higher level. This was from a CSE Grade 4. It's SO much different learning as an adult. No chewed up paper spat out of a pen tube hitting the back of your neck, for a start.

HappyMummy..mine used to terrorize anyone who struggled...called them a "drip" and worse...shouted till he sprayed us all with spit.

Sometimes I want to find him and kick the shit out of him....other times I pity him.