SEE- i didn't make it up!!!

Everyone who knows me also know i suck at maths- to a degree which is quite ridiculous. It took after-school sessions 3 times a week with my maths teacher, a tutor twice a week and doing 2 hours worth of work at home everyday for 2months in order for me to get a B at GCSE- this may seem like i was going over-board but the idea of not having having to ever do maths again was such an amazing thing it made me push myself harder than i ever had done before.

However- recently loads of things have been happening involving numbers; bank stuff, house stuff, bills stuff and all that malarke, which means that i have been thrust back into the world of numbers. When i say to people "I honestly think i have like dyslexia for maths" they tell me im being an idiot and there's no such thing- it's probably more likely that i'm a tad stupid. BUT i have looked it up, and there is such a thing as Mathematical disability- it's called Dyscalculia. Here's some information on it - i will write under neath why i know i must have it;

Dyscalculia:
"A genetically-linked learning disability which affects a person's ability to understand, remember, or manipulate numbers or number facts (e.g., the multiplication tables). The term is often used to refer specifically to the inability to perform arithmetic operations, but it is also defined by some educational professionals and cognitive psychologists as a more fundamental inability to conceptualize numbers as abstract concepts of comparative quantities (a deficit in "number sense"). Those who argue for this more constrained definition of dyscalculia sometimes prefer to use the technical term Arithmetic Difficulties (AD) to refer to calculation and number memory deficits."
Ok, so to start with my Mum struggles with numbers as much as i do, maybe even more, whereas my Dad is like bloody Stephen Hawking- he loves maths. So there's the genetic bit. The rest of it is perfectly true- it took me an entire week when i was younger to learn the 7x table- just the 7!!

"Dyscalculia occurs in people across the whole IQ range, and sufferers often, but not always, also have difficulties with time, measurement, and spatial reasoning"
Well that explains why i'm so damn clumsy and always bump into things- i say "I have no spatial awareness" about a million times a day.

"Current estimates suggest it may affect about 5% of the population"
Always knew i was special ^^

"In the way that dyslexia can be dealt with by using a slightly different approach to teaching, so can dyscalculia. However, dyscalculia is the lesser known of these learning disorders and so is often not recognized."
And that right there is why i had to do all the work i did at GCSE- i'm not blaming anyone but it would've been nice to know that people didn't just think i was a complete idiot, and think how much it would've helped me if they'd recognised it and taught me how to handle it. All i ever heard from my maths teacher was "You don't get it cos you don't listen or work hard enough". I HATED it

SYMPTOMS:

-Inability to comprehend financial planning or budgeting, sometimes even at a basic level; for example, estimating the cost of the items in a shopping basket or balancing a checkbook.
Yep
-Difficulty with multiplication-tables, and subtraction-tables, addition tables, division tables, mental arithmetic, etc.
7 x table
-May do fairly well in subjects such as science and geometry, which require logic rather than formulae, until a higher level requiring calculations is obtained
I was brilliant at science at GCSE level- i got an A in the chemistry part of my science GCSE, but when i took it at A-level, and there was a constant use of numbers i couldn't do it and got an E. It almost ruined my AS-Levels and chances of Uni
-Difficulty with conceptualizing time and judging the passing of time. May be chronically late
Anyone who knows me knows this- just the other day i was telling Alex i have absolutely no concept of time, and i'm always late
-Having particular difficulty mentally estimating the measurement of an object or distance (e.g., whether something is 10 or 20 feet (3 or 6 metres) away).
Seriously- if someone asks "how far away was it?" i have to physically show them- i can never say how far because i have no idea about lengths or anything
-Often unable to grasp and remember mathematical concepts, rules, formulae, and sequences.
Yep
-An inability to read a sequence of numbers, or transposing them when repeated, such as turning 56 into 65
Yep
-The condition may lead in extreme cases to a phobia or durable anxiety of mathematics and mathematical-numeric devices/coherence's
I haven't got a phobia, but the "durable anxiety" bit is spot on- Maths and numbers freak me out and upset me- i get really het up and upset if i have to do maths and stuff, it panics me
-Might have a well-developed sense of imagination due to this (possibly as cognitive compensation to mathematical-numeric deficits).
I have the world's biggest imagination. Again, if you know me you'll know this- i come up with the most ludicrous things and just let my mind run wild. That's a good thing though i spose ^^

i dunno if anyone else is going to find this interesting, but i really really do- everything about it makes sense. i just like that i have an answer now. i think i should get tested for it- it might help me out in the future or something if it's been clinically diagnosed. people might be a bit more understanding then

xXx