I feel like I'm wasting my time. (dyscalculia)

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Ever since I was eight years old, people have suggested that I might have dyscalculia. Whenever I try to look into getting a diagnosis, I'm always told the same thing- that there's not point since not many people have even heard of it, despite the fact it's estimated to be just as common as dyslexia in the general population.

It's hard to know where to look in the UK to get tested, a lot of places offer tests for dyslexia but not for dyscalculia, which can be a problem. The thing I hate most about it, is not knowing. Yes, there are people in my life who are pretty certain I have it but that means nothing without a diagnosis because there's always a chance that I don't have it and I just wish I finally knew whether I have it or not.

I don't know why I spend so much time complaining to the internet, it's not like that's gonna solve my problems but I don't know what else to do. I'm turning 18 and I hear it can be harder to get a diagnosis in adulthood, but I don't actually know anyone in my life who has dyscalculia and is open about it so I don't even know if getting diagnosed is even worth it.

Why do you think you have dyscalculia? What types of things do you struggle with?

If you will be attending college or university, or think your difficulty will affect you on the job such that you will need accommodations, then a diagnosis would not be a bad idea. Frequently though they don't specifically diagnose dyscalculia, but do a learning assessment that simply shows a learning disorder and leave it at that. That's typically sufficient for accommodations.

There are a few things I struggle with, but a big one for me is time. I don't really have much of a sense of time, I used to be particularly bad at this but I have improved, but it's still an area I have difficulty with. I've made some pretty stupid mistakes in the past because of this, such as missing an hour long lesson because I was left alone without a clock and told to come back in ten minutes, and unfortunately for me an hour feels like ten minutes. The most I've ever managed to accurately estimate without a way of checking the time is five minutes, any longer than that and it could be anywhere between 12 minutes to an hour and a half that has passed and I wouldn't be able to tell at all.

Unfortunately, this means that my time management skills are often lacking, because I have no real measurement of how long an activity is going to take me to complete so usually I tend to fall behind on assignment work because I'm bad at planning.

I can sometimes slip up on telling the time too, much to my embarrassment. During my work experience placement, I made the mistake of reading a clock incorrectly and I had my boss at the time correct me. I felt so stupid. Getting the dates right to things can be difficult for me too, I once informed my family incorrectly of when an art exhibition was on, you see I'd looked at a poster and the last digit of the year had swapped with the day that it was hosted on, but I realised that if it had said the year I thought it had said then the art exhibition would have already happened, and when I asked about the exhibition happening on Friday a woman informed me it was actually on a Thursday, and she was right so I had to go and tell my family the correct date.

Numbers can at times swap for me, so 42 can become 24 when I'm reading, but usually when I reread it the second time I read it correctly. I once did a learning assessment at college, and the woman testing me did comment on how I was slower to read numbers than letters, but how she didn't think it meant anything because she thought it was probably because I dislike maths or I just probably have maths anxiety or something. She said that if I really did have issues with numbers than I'd probably have problems with letters, but aren't numbers processed differently in the brain than letters, or am I mistaken?

I have some sensory issues and possibly misophonia, I have a hard time controlling what I can filter out in my surroundings so I often have a hard time concentrating and keeping calm in busy environments, I know in my last maths lesson I had such a hard time that I kind of well.. walked out at one point because I couldn't take being in that room for any longer, I was trying really hard to keep focused and stay calm but I just couldn't control myself and I had to sit in the toilets a few times just to keep it together. I'm somewhat claustrophobic so crowds tend to freak me out, and when I was younger I had problems regarding personal space, I even got in a few fights because I misunderstood people's behaviour thinking it was confrontational when actually they were just trying to be friendly. I no longer have this problem, but I still like some personal space as people being too close to me makes me feel uncomfortable.

I used to struggle with eye contact, but I no longer struggle with this. It used to be that I found it hard to make eye contact with those that I deemed to have any authority, but I no longer find it hard to make eye contact with authority figures anymore. I don't think that's anything to do with dyscalculia though, I think that was just how I was.



I currently attend College, but I am going on to University soon. You bring up an interesting point, I hadn't thought to ask the University about generalised learning assessments, and I should probably bring it up at some point although I don't have much hope as usually when I ask education establishments about these type of things they just say they'll get around to talking to people and they never do. I hope to be persistent this time around though. Not sure who I'll have to contact in the University though, I'll have to look into that.

Yes, letters and numbers, and other symbols are processed by different parts of the brain. Often times, on a learning assessment there will be a matching test, where a person is given a series of shapes, and then given a list of a series of shapes, and asked to find all of the rows that match the series of shapes given. Then this same test is repeated with numbers. People who have dyscalculia tend to do fine with the shapes and show a deficit with the numbers.

Yeah, I thought so. I guess I'll just have to look into all of this when I get to University and hope I pass my exams this time around.

I have dyscalculia but was told by professionals that it was just part of my dyslexia. Perhaps you would qualify for a dyslexia diagnoses instead of dyscalculia one. Having a diagnoses of either or both might come in handy for accommodations in school.

I have dyscalculia. I was told that because I tested so high I reading I couldn't possibly have it. I have the same symptoms as you. What would a diagnosis mean to you. I pretty universally cannot do more that add and subtract and my family helps me with budgeting and my medications because I mess up dosing. I think testing accommodations are important. We have learning disabilities testing in the IS but I think it has to be done before the age of 18 to count. Most schools will make accommodations in my experience tho. Good luck.

I'm currently 18 at the moment, I might look into testing and accommodation but there isn't that much math involved in the course I'm going on to do, so I don't know. I just hope that come August it'll turn out I got a C in maths, because if not that means I'm going to have to redo it for the fourth time, and I really don't want that to happen. I think I did much better though this time, so it's possible I've passed. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

I've never been told professionally that I have dyscalculia, but I have always suspected that I have it or a similar learning impediment. I've consistently failed maths tests up to college level, and chose not took go into computer science because I would most certainly fail the maths prerequisites.
Closure is a good thing, but if you can't qualify for the diagnosis, you can be so much better at other things.

I have the exact same issue as you. I can't tell an hour from 5 minnutes. I struggle reading numbers and doing basic math.

The way I compensate is largely thanks to google. I use google-nows features. Like a calendar that reminds me of chores, appointments and so on. I have a gps on my home screen wich shows me where and when I am. Google now keeps track of everything from traffic to busses.
I have an automatically generated list of appointments and chores which getts compiled from reocurring events and te
Reminders I put in. Most of this is synced to my smartwatch. I can ask google now for math questions or use the calculator.

to get testing accommodations at school, you need a diagnosis. of something. learning disorder. developmental disability. mental illness. some sort of diagnosis.

your profile says you are a student. it did not say high school or college.

if you are not going to go to college, or if you are going to college and do not want testing accommodations, there is little point of getting a diagnosis.

to get work accommodations, you also need a diagnosis. granted, i ain't no psychologist. but i find it hard to imagine that there are jobs that you could do with accommodations for dyscalculia, that you could not do without work accommodations.

but of course, i ain't psychic or telepathic. and i ain't familiar with a lot of jobs.

so who cares what i say? not even the precious little school counselor.

I'm starting University in September- I just finished my second year of College. I believe high school is equivalent to secondary school here in the UK? I dunno, I'm not that informed about US differences. It was a two year vocational course anyway.

As for school counsellors- I know how you feel. Once had a counsellor have a mental breakdown in front of me. I don't think it was entirely me that caused it though, I guess something must've happened in her home life or something. But that was a long time ago anyway, I think I was around 8 or 10. I hope she's ok, never really saw her after that. I got a new counsellor though afterwards and she seemed ok.

Isn't that like getting numbers mixed up in a visual malfunctory order? I have had a test for it which came back fine, even though they were not describing that at all. It could mean you can't use a calculator, which in that case, i'd say i have mild dyscalculia, as i have to remember the correct equations when figuring out a percentage or fraction, not that many people use fractions and which should be abolished from schools.

I'm starting University in September- I just finished my second year of College. I believe high school is equivalent to secondary school here in the UK? I dunno, I'm not that informed about US differences. It was a two year vocational course anyway.

As for school counsellors- I know how you feel. Once had a counsellor have a mental breakdown in front of me. I don't think it was entirely me that caused it though, I guess something must've happened in her home life or something. But that was a long time ago anyway, I think I was around 8 or 10. I hope she's ok, never really saw her after that. I got a new counsellor though afterwards and she seemed ok.
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yeah high school is the equivalent of secondary school.

the previous licensed clinical social worker at community college. was so condecending. she would not even let me disagree with her. she talked to me in a patronizing tone. she had the nerve to tell me "i know you're smart." she acted like i was in kindergarden and she was a kindergarden teacher. she had the nerve to say "huh" and "what" instead of "excuse me". she kept changing the number of sessions i had left remaining. she acted like she knew everything, like she was morally innocent, like she was absolutely important. she acted like her opinion was morally superior to mine.

then the high school school psychologist was a nightmare. even 18 years later, i don't wanna even think about her.

I doubt that dyscalclia has anything to do with your sense of time.

It Doesn't sound like you are much worse than the next person with measuring the passage of time who doesn't have a watch. And...what stops you from getting a watch? Or stops you from just looking at the time on your cell phone when they tell you to "come back in ten minutes"?

In fact I am unclear as to what any of what you said has to do with dyscalculia?

They call it dyscalculia because it stops you from calculating. So how are you at actual arithmetic?

How are you at doing math in your head?

Do you have trouble figuring out what the price of one thing is if its "three for two dollars"?

I know a guy who is both dyslexic and has dyscalclia. When he talks about childhood memories he has to stop and ask me "how old are you when your in the forth grade (or whatever grade in school he is talking about)?".

Do you have trouble with things like figuring out how old you were when you are at a particular grade in school? Or making change with money? Or with knowing how many hours it takes to drive 600 miles at fifty mph?

There have been times where I have been unable to get to a clock, or my problems with time have been unrelated. For instance, one time at school I accidentally did two PE sessions when I wasn't meant to.

You see, I was in English and I went to PE because I thought the lesson was over since I heard the bell, so I went to PE and was told my class wasn't there, so a teacher let me join their class.

I found out later the reason my class wasn't there was because I was meant to be in English and the bell was the late bell, not the end of lesson bell, and I should have figured that out by looking at the clock but my brain was just in auto drive so I didn't think properly.

There have also been times where I have messed up on telling the time correctly.

I was under the impression that most people had a better understanding of time than that, since the majority of the people around me can tell up to an hour or so without a watch, but then again I might just be hanging around math geniuses or something.

[quote= "naturalplastic"] They call it dyscalculia because it stops you from calculating. So how are you at actual arithmetic?

How are you at doing math in your head?

Do you have trouble figuring out what the price of one thing is if its "three for two dollars"?[/quote]

I cannot do mental maths. I have to write it down, otherwise I forget where I was in the equation, and what I was doing. Often I end up with a completely wrong answer. My basic arithmetic skills are lacking, I often make silly mistakes.

I would only be able to work out the price if I drew a picture of the items and wrote down calculations, I could not do it on the top of my head, at least probably not without making some mistakes.

[/quote="naturalplastic"] I know a guy who is both dyslexic and has dyscalclia. When he talks about childhood memories he has to stop and ask me "how old are you when your in the forth grade (or whatever grade in school he is talking about)?".

Do you have trouble with things like figuring out how old you were when you are at a particular grade in school? Or making change with money? Or with knowing how many hours it takes to drive 600 miles at fifty mph?[/quote]

Yes, I tend to ask how old I was at certain times. I often remember what was said, what I saw and how it felt, but place names, people names and when the event occurred can be slightly blurry in my mind at times.

Yeah, I can mess up in change, and usually prefer it if others work that out.

Speed times distance equals time, correct? So 50 times 600, hmm, 5 times 60 equals 12, add on another zero for 600, 120, then possibly another for 50, so 1200. But 1200 hours doesn't seem right so maybe if I converted that to minutes.

1200*60= well 12 times 6 would be 72, so 72000 or 7200?

Nope no idea what to do at this point.

72 hours? Nope that doesn't seem right. Dammit.

So the calculator tells me 7200/60= 120.
So maybe 120? No damn that's higher. 120/60= 2.

Is the answer two hours?