{"id":102621,"date":"2016-05-04T01:50:30","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T01:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/05\/04\/why-dyscalculia-awareness-is-so-important\/"},"modified":"2016-05-04T01:50:30","modified_gmt":"2016-05-04T01:50:30","slug":"why-dyscalculia-awareness-is-so-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/05\/04\/why-dyscalculia-awareness-is-so-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Dyscalculia awareness is so important"},"content":{"rendered":"

thecashewchronicle<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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the-great-trashheap<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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lemonsharks<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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jeneelestrange<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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lynati<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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setepenre-set<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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thecashewchronicle<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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I\u2019d like to take a second to list all the people I wish had known more about dyscalculia growing up:<\/p>\n

My first grade teacher, who noticed when on a verbal counting test that I went from 99 to 100 to 200 and told my parents I just needed a little practice<\/p>\n

My third grade teacher, who couldn\u2019t understand why I would turn in a timed multiplication table test with absolutely nothing written on it, or burst into tears when asked to bring it home and have it signed by my parents<\/p>\n

My school corporation, who placed me in advanced mathematics for two excruciating years based on aptitude tests, apparently unaware that aptitude and ability are not one and the same<\/p>\n

My fifth grade teacher, who privately admonished me for \u201claziness\u201d because I couldn\u2019t stop making \u201csilly mistakes\u201d\u2014like switching multiplication and addition, or flipping numbers like three and eight, or failing to follow every step of a math problem<\/p>\n

My sixth grade math teacher, who publicly called me out for writing the formula for the Pythagorean Theorem on my hand, claiming I didn\u2019t study, though I had spent five hours the night before preparing<\/p>\n

My parents, who grounded me every time my report card came out, trying their best to discipline what they thought was laziness<\/p>\n

My family doctor, who, once told about my math troubles, prescribed me ADD medication without any running any kind of diagnostic<\/p>\n

My Algebra teacher senior year after I was diagnosed, who claimed that giving me extra time on my test would be \u201cunfair to the other students\u201d<\/p>\n

Every teacher who ever laughed and pointed at the clock when I asked them what time it was<\/p>\n

The boy in my band class that said I was the \u201cstupidest smart person he\u2019d ever met\u201d<\/p>\n

My former boss, who when I told I had dyscalculia told me \u201cI probably have it too, I am always mixing things up!\u201d (she was an accounting major and ran the accounting portion of that place of business)<\/p>\n

But you know who would have really benefited from knowing about dyscalculia? Me. I wish I had known. I wish I could go back and tell my ten year old self that it wasn\u2019t my fault, that I am extraordinary in the best way. I wish someone, somewhere along the way could have seen what was really going on.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why dyscalculia awareness is so important.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

oh my god.<\/p>\n

I. had no idea this was a thing. looked up the symptoms and<\/p>\n

\u2018inability to tell, at a glance, how many objects are in a small group\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

THIS. THIS IS A THING? THAT OTHER PEOPLE HAVE?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018struggles with directions, anxious about moving from one location to another\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

I memorized the route to all my classes in high school and yet if I didn\u2019t have COMPLETE AND UTTER FOCUS I would STILL GET LOST it was so unbelievably stressful<\/p>\n

\u2018is constantly late because struggles with understanding the passage of time\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018struggles to\u00a0read analog clocks\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018moves too fast or too slow\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018struggles with basic math\/memorizing math facts like times tables and formulas\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

GOD. I spent MONTHS on those times table tests; long after everyone else had gotten theirs done, I was still taking and retaking those awful, awful tests.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And I still have to turn everything into addition to get it to make sense. 10-7? count up from 7 to 10, on my fingers. do it again to make sure I\u2019ve done it right. 4×6? that\u2019s 6+6+6+6. \u00a0keep track of it on my fingers. do it again to be sure. 18\/3? start adding threes together, keeping track of how many it takes, on my fingers. do it again to be sure. STILL SOMETIMES GET IT WRONG because even addition is hard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

just.<\/p>\n

dyscalculia<\/i>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

is a thing.<\/i><\/p>\n

thank you for this post.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I see people trash-talk Tumblr all the time but I\u2019ve lost track of how many people have said something JUST LIKE THIS about their mental or physical health, their gender or sexual identity, and their understanding of social issues or world politics during the less-than-18-month I\u2019ve been here than at any other website or classroom I\u2019ve ever had a presence in.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I literally didn\u2019t learn that I might have dyscalculia until I was studying to be a teacher and had to learn what the hell that was. And oh hey, look, I have practically every symptom but I\u2019m about to graduate and there\u2019s really no point in me putting forth the money to diagnose anything. Seeing kids FINALLY get something in math after working really hard at it, only to forget by the next day, JUST like I used to do, but knowing there\u2019s nothing I can do to stop that. All I can do is teach them the little tricks I learned to remember and figure stuff out and get around the fact that I knew only about half the times tables.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

HOLY MOTHER OF PIE.\u00a0<\/p>\n

@taraljc<\/a>, look at this IT IS US.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Most of my symptoms have been mitigated or alleviated by technology and I would like to tell my third grade teacher: fuck\u00a0<\/i>you, I have a calculator with me at all times <\/i>and I do not<\/i>\u00a0need to know my times tables FFFFFFFFF and I am not <\/i>stupid or lazy for not being able to learn them)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

My chemistry teacher used to write me really nasty messages on my chemistry work about how I\u2019d get the problems right if I stopped doodling in my notebook and actually tried harder. \u00a0I asked him for help and he refused to help me because I couldn\u2019t point to one single thing I was struggling to understand. \u00a0I could do the experiments but I couldn\u2019t do the math. \u00a0The only reason why I didn\u2019t fail chemistry was because we started working on organic chemistry at the end of the year, and ochem is all about shapes and drawing the molecules. \u00a0At the end of the year he gave me some kind of barely passing slacker award. I took it with a smile and didn\u2019t cry until I got home. \u00a0I\u2019m still hurt by it and I still hate that man.<\/p>\n

In college, I nonstop struggled with math, I still failed chemistry a couple of times before finally savaging my way through, actually got kicked out of school but begged for them to keep me in\u2026 and when I was a second year senior, begging the math counselors to let me into trig so I could just meet my biology requirements, they took a look at my ACT scores and said\u00a0\u201cHuh, your math score is way lower than your other scores. \u00a0Have you been tested for a learning disability?\u201d \u00a0But because I\u2019d already been diagnosed with depression I\u2019d have to go to an outside agency to get tested and it was going to cost me $300.<\/p>\n

Now as an adult I\u2019m late all the time, I miss deadlines, and people just think I\u2019m a total unreliable flake. \u00a0I think my boss hates me. \u00a0But I managed to graduate college with a degree in Wildlife Management, become a wildlife biologist, and now an Astronomy teacher, and I still multiply by counting up on my fingers. \u00a0But whenever English teachers say shit like\u00a0\u201cOh but you\u2019re a science teacher, math and science go together, I can\u2019t do that!\u201d I want to punch them. \u00a0I can\u2019t do it either, but I stuck my fist up the ass of the system anyway and had to fight tooth and nail to get where I am now. \u00a0Now I\u2019m just afraid of trying to get certified as a high school science generalist and\/or get my Master\u2019s degree when I was never officially diagnosed and have never had any kind of support.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

since i published this post so long ago i\u2019ve watched it circulate tumblr and heard stories of all kinds. some people were abused by horrible parents and teachers, others had it recognized early and got the help they needed. many people are just hearing about it and suspecting they may have it themselves, which hopefully means they will get the help they need. some people even send me their stories about obstinate school staff, ableism in their homes and work, and sarcastic teachers who think we\u2019re lazy or\u00a0\u201cslow\u201d (god, the way they treat cognitively disabled kids\u2026 holy fuck.) i don\u2019t always reply to all these stories because it can be taxing, but believe me when i say i read every single one. the story above gave me pause because it is one i identify with. i too had a similar struggle with my chemistry teacher.<\/p>\n

what all these stories have made clear to me is that a) we need more awareness and testing for learning disabilities in schools and b) we need a complete overhaul of how we treat children with all kinds of learning disabilities and cognitive impairments. when i look back on the way that the\u00a0\u201cspecial education\u201d kids were walled off, vilified, ridiculed, and generally ignored by the staff at the public school i attended, i realize that, in my case, no one recognizing my disability was a blessing. if someone had, i would have been treated the same way the other disabled kids were treated in my school district at that time.<\/i>\u00a0just like this post says, i still wish i had known, but knowing is only half the battle. we need enormous changes to our public school systems to accommodate and address learning disabilities. we need more access to testing at a lower cost. we need awareness and cooperation from teachers and parents.<\/b><\/i> we need to address ableism in schools. we need to change the way teachers, parents, and students think and act. and we need to make resources for testing and therapy available to adults too, because learning disabilities don\u2019t go away when school ends either.<\/p>\n

when i read these stories, i feel a fire in me growing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

thecashewchronicle: the-great-trashheap: lemonsharks: jeneelestrange: lynati: setepenre-set: thecashewchronicle: I\u2019d like to take a second to list all the people I wish had known more about dyscalculia growing up: My first grade teacher, who noticed when on a verbal counting test that I went from 99 to 100 to 200 and told my parents I just needed … <\/p>\n

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