Struggle reading numbers but not letters?

Post Reply New Topic

I don't understand this. When I'm dealing with numbers, they jump all over the page and I just cannot add up or subtract or even think mathematically at all, even if it's simple and a 9-year-old could do it.

But it can't be dyslexia because I am very good at spelling, writing, punctuation, all of that sort of stuff, and when I read words letters do not jumble around.
If I am reading and there's a big number in a sentence written in digits and not words, like 42,670, I cannot always grasp what the number says unless I stare at it for a few seconds, so I just skip it, or just read it as "42 thousand".

At the end of every week at work we have to fill out a form to say what hours we done and you have to add them up, and I literally have to ask for help each time, especially if I've done overtime. It's such a simple task to do, but as soon as I get the form in front of me I stare at it blankly and numbers suddenly become a foreign language.

I have ADHD so maybe numbers require more attention, logic and memory, which is why I struggle?

Probably dyscalculia.

I become fairly uncomfortable if I have to do very much with numbers, even with the aid of a spreadsheet. There are people who can look at a spreadsheet and instantly say "Looks like the median is around 21,500" or spot a trend. Not me. There are also people who can do mental arithmetic, and those people do not include me.

I always "did well" in math, getting A's, but that does not mean I really feel comfortable with it.

I did think dyscalculia, but I can't pronounce the word to people, nor do people seem to know what it is when I do try to tell them.

I struggled with maths the most all through school. It used to be my worst subject in primary school. In secondary school it wasn't so much my worst subject, but I was still poor at it. The reason why I quite liked maths at secondary school was because the maths teachers were always nice and also humorous, so they made the math lessons a laugh. But I didn't like maths itself. Once a week I was taken out of maths class to do maths in a small group of children with learning difficulties with a support teacher to help us catch up. But I still never took it seriously.

Well when i explain to people my dysgraphia i just tell them it's like dyslexia but with writing it'll probably make way more sense to say it's like dyslexia with math than it does to say its' dyslexia with writing. Also I'm not sure if this is the right way to pronunciate. I pronounce it like dis-calc-ula with a silent i. I can't imagine anyone pronouncing it dis-calc-ulia.

I could've easily written this post, since I relate to the majority of it. Sometimes people ask me "So, if you get it with numbers then why not with letters? Are you sure that you're not making this up?" and it can be frustrating. At the moment I'm not formally diagnosed, but I strongly suspect that I have dyscalculia or some other kind of visual processing/ neurological disorder (and so do my friends and family). Occasionally I'll bring up my difficulties with numbers to an educator and they'll say something along the lines of "But you do so well in your other subjects/ you don't seem like the type to have learning difficulties/ your spelling is good though".

What would I even have to gain by making such a thing up? It can feel confusing when you just get it with numbers though, because the help available usually focuses on helping dyslexic students that happen to also have dyscalculia and no one seems to address the fact that they can occur separately. Sure, the co-occurrence rate is high but like you I am decent at spelling and do not have a habit of writing words phonetically.

My dad has dyslexia and he doesn't think that I am dyslexic, but he does suspect that I have dyscalculia. My parents have suspected this about me for a long time, starting from when I was around eight years old. School was always rather difficult because due to the fact that I was seen as a bright student, it was often assumed that I simply wasn't trying hard enough in maths and this would frustrate my teachers. In reality, I put a lot of time and effort into studying for maths but I still managed to fall behind drastically.

One time a teacher called me out in front of the class for copying down numbers from the board in the incorrect order and I also put the wrong symbol on a few of the questions (times instead of plus for example) and she told me off for not paying enough attention and being lazy. I did try to copy them to the best of my ability, but unfortunately I do have a tendency to read such information incorrectly and sometimes I miss those mistakes.

You might be interested in this study where they successfully induced dyscalculic symptoms in non-dyscalculic individuals: https://www.labnews.co.uk/news/study-is ... 0-04-2007/

I have a picture memory and this helps me with visual art. I too was put in a special group for Maths at school. I cannot make numbers fall into line in my mind and they are replaced with other numbers without my noticing. This led to years of comparing myself to other people according to our different mathematical skills. These days I tell people I cannot remember numbers and they accept it. I also think that mathematics is a subject where those that are good at it enjoy it very much and don't mind helping rather lost people like me with their bills. I will never improve, because the numbers don't stick around long enough.

I have similar issues. I can’t do basic maths a child can do. I prounounce it dis-calc-lia. Or like the poster above says “dyslexia with numbers”

I've always had a bit of this. I still transpose digits when reading numbers, but don't really have this problem with words. Funny. I was in the gifted program as a kid, but my math scores were all over the place. Some years straight As, some years I felt lucky to get a a C+.

might be dyscalculia, however you're saying that "the numbers jump all over the page".

So its seems like you're impaired in the realm of reading numbers on a printed page, and not adding them per se. And its sounds like you cant keep the numbers ordered properly. So it sounds like dyslexia, but dyslexia that only applies to reading numbers and not letters. So I dunno. Maybe there is such a thing. Numbers only dyslexia. I have read about how numbers and letters actually seem to use different parts of the human brain (even though you tend to thinking of reading both of kinds of symbols as being similar tasks).

Personally I'm impaired with both. Numbers will move about, but even when they don't and I read the question correctly there's a significant chance that my calculations will go wrong somewhere. Particularly because even if I read it properly it's possible that it'll switch when I'm trying to visualise it because it takes me so long to work out an answer that I forget what the question was part way through.

"Was it 52 apples? 25? Am I taking them away? I forgot the question. Were there apples?" *Looks at sheet and starts again* My short term memory for numerical information is appalling.

A typical maths lesson for me;

*Sits down to read sheet, numbers move about so I read it incorrectly and create a question that wasn't there because I read part of question twenty and somehow my brain thought it was part of question one. Works out that question with difficulty*

Then I realise my mistake because I look back to question one and see that it's a completely different question. Cross out everything I just did. I write the question again properly. Curse at my brain. Draw a circle around the equation sign in the hopes that it'll help me remember what type of equation I'm attempting.

If it's addition or subtraction, I'll get a piece of lined paper and turn it to landscape because I find that I am less likely to add (or subtract) the wrong columns if I do that. Work out lots of small equations to work out the main equation and get so wrapped up in that I forget what I was doing. Attempt to use another method instead. Part way through forget what the next step was. Panic ensues. Try to go back to previous method. Forget where I was so I start again. Internally scream. See that everyone around me finished ages ago.

There's nothing more annoying that spending ages trying to workout something and getting to an answer that couldn't possibly be right after an entire page of attempting to solve it and not being sure where you went wrong. I also lack number sense, which I hear is fairly common in dyscalculic individuals (understandable as translated literally dyscalculia means "To count badly") and another reason I suspect that I have it. Usually if someone asks me how many dots or items there (such as chess pieces) I tend to have to count them individually (especially if they are scattered around the board) as I sometimes find it difficult to group them.

I wonder if the OP can relate...