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.

!!! I too want to hunt down that horrible man. He must have felt so inadequate in himself that he felt powerful when humiliating an eleven year old girl. Im so relieved that My boys aged 11 and 9 love their maths teachers now - my youngest has even been known to come bounding into my bedroom in the morning shouting "yes!!! We've got a mental maths test today"!!!

I did well at school and college and am now a lecturer but I failed O-level maths five times. Yes, five. One of those re-sits was while I was doing my A-levels and the other three were adult ed classes in my twenties.

I had to sit a special entrance exam for those without a maths qualification to get onto my teacher training course. The first question was about displacement of water by a submarine and I stared at it in blind panic for 10 minutes before gathering myself to leave it and move on to the other questions.

The funny thing is that in my subject area I work with co-ordinates and vectors all the time and at school I passed O-level geometry, engineering drawing and technical drawing.

I don't believe that I was taught badly and I can apply maths to everyday applications such as money, percentages, VAT etc, but I have no sense of time (how many years ago, dates of deaths of parents like another poster, years certain records came out).

I have had similar trouble learning to drive - I have had over 200 lessons with three different instructors and it just makes no sense to me. I sit in the car with no more idea what to do than on the first lesson. Like maths.

I think it's just the way my brain works...

Like you said, it is unlikely you will 'fix' yourself.

What would be useful is to have some coping mechanisms for working out percentages, for example, and having a file on your phone to help you.

So rather than trying to use a formula for 10%, you could consider:

10% of any number is the first number in the number and take away one set of 0s on the end. i.e. moving the decimal point forward by one number.

e.g. £20, is £2, 500 = 50

Then once you have got the hang of this, you can start on numbers like:

£35 10% = £3.50

The other alternative is to get someone to write out common percentages of common numbers you use.

There are loads of courses you could enrol on too to help you find more of these mechanisms. Look for basic skills courses in numeracy, I would say you would need an entry 2 or 3 course to begin with.

Not to be a bore, but learning difficulty and learning disability are very different.

A person with a learning disability will generally have an IQ of 70 or below. Their functioning in (e.g.) aspects of social and emotional/intellectual developmental areas are impaired or delayed.

A person with a learning diffuculty will have a difficulty in a particular area of their intellectual functioning, but their general development is seen as "normal" (I use the word advisedly).

Even my fantastic GP had a query about this. (She was asking me in my professional capacity.)

Sorry to hijack with semantics OP, and good luck with your maths issue. :)

It sounds like you might be suffering from dyscalculia. I'd recommend you to get professional help from specialized doctors.