Great word!
It means dyslexia with numbers rather
than the usual letter variety
I suffer from the number one, I’m 100%
fine with the letters (I think)
and it’s not just a case of being bad at maths
or arithmetic or even numbers. It’s an
inability to look at numbers and interpret
them correctly
example – last week the vet gave me tablets
for Bodhi and a week later she was really
disappointed with his progress. That night
I realised I had only been giving him half
the dose 🙁
He was stung on his head and an abscess
appeared covering his skull. I’ve washed it,
scrubbed it, put cream on it twice a day, I’ve
grated cheese to wrap round his tablets
I’ve made him wear his giant cone at all
times unless he is next to me and I’ve
wrestled with him on and off a train twice
a day and put up with him at the Studio
and because I couldn’t read the instructions
properly for his tablets, we had another
week added on to this palava!
The British Dyslexia Association describes
“A poor sense of number and estimation
with no sense of whether any answers that
are obtained are right or nearly right”
as symptoms of dyscalculia
It took me three attempts to get my Maths
o-grade at school, I can’t add up simple
numbers like 7 + 4, I can’t even use a
calculator as I get different answers each
time!
Spreadsheets are my godsend, strangely
I can do the formulas just fine and yes I
would use a spreadsheet for 7+4
Money as in cash, also fine, I can count
out cash perfectly but I think that’s cause
I can see it, it’s there in my hand, like
6 ten pence pieces come to 60p
and my favourite, 5 twenty pence pieces
come to £1, I have that memorised 🙂
but when Ryan asks me, how much money
we should take on holiday, I’ll just give a
random number that sounds like it might
be right
Thankfully, I know from instinct how many
burpees you could do in 5 minutes or how
long it would take to run 5k or how much
exercise fit’s into an hour
but I do get that wrong sometimes too and
I can tell right away I’ve made a boo boo
from looking at the confused, daunted and
sometimes terrified look on my clients faces!
I feel so bad for Bodhi, I’ve let him down,
not that he knows that, he’s a dog…
but I’ve learned that 2 tablets twice a day
equals 4 tablets not 2
(why didn’t it just say 2 in the morning
and 2 at night?)
None of us are perfect and we all have our
quirks and challenges but now you know
what dyscalculia is
I thought it would make a wee story for a
Friday…
Carolyne
p.s. what do you struggle with? Let me know x
