Go left, right, left, left, right, then jump up and down and scream

Directions! Ah yes, those things that are great to know if you want to get from A to B. Yes, well, what if you don't know the way to B?

Get a map!
Well, that would be all well and good if dyscalculia didn't get in the way. The condition makes it very hard to read a map, unless very specific directions are labelled at each turning point.

Ask someone!
Dyscalculia can make it very difficult to remember directions, especially if they are only spoken ones. Trouble with left and right orientation is also common. This affects me most for example when someone suddenly says "turn right!" and then I'll panic because I don't instinctively know which way that would be, and I'll most likely end up going the wrong way. It isn't a case of absolutely not knowing it at all, because I know I write with my right hand and my left hand is the indie, less mainstream one.

Anyway, getting lost, or feeling like you're in an impossible situation is scary. I had a college induction day a little while ago (about the time I wrote my first entry on here), where all we had to find our way around was a confusing, plan-view map of the entire (huge) campus. I couldn't remember the way to the classroom I had been in earlier that day (in the language department) and the map was useless to me, so I ended up walking into the business studies building, which confused me greatly. Thankfully, my friend had seen me out of a window and came to get me. So basically, the easiest, least stressful way to get around a new place is if you have someone to take you there and to help you familiarise yourself, which isn't always easy to have. This may be true of any person, but for many dyscalculics, as I have explained, the normal options of directions or maps are cancelled out.

I would like to add that today marks the beginning of a project I have set myself. I'm going to create a short film about dyscalculia and what it's like to live with the condition. i have never made anything longer than a music video before so hopefully the outcome will be good!

Thanks for reading.

Early signs and remembering dates

Looking back, now that I know I have dyscalculia, there are things I did when I was young that were early signs of my condition. Obviously at the time I had no idea it meant anything.

One particular thing that sticks out, which I have to stop myself from doing these days (especially as I'm doing a GCSE in history now), is how whenever I was reading a piece of text, if a date came up (for example 1892) I would completely skim over it because in comparison to reading the words, reading a number, especially such a big one, was a much harder task. Nowadays I stop myself and think it out: right, eighteen-ninety-two. I then carefully think about where that date is on a mental time line, so I fully absorb the information.

Now, in history we have to learn a lot of dates. I have surprisingly become quite good at this (for a dyscalculic), but only because of one thing: I remember the shape of the number and then I associate that with the event, for example, the German hyperinflation of 1923. It may sound strange, but it works for me (although I cannot remember birthdays of friends and family to save my life, i might add)! This association with words helps because I love words and language. this is where, like many dyscalculics, I find my area of expertise. i have managed to excel in French at my school, achieving an A at GCSE two years early. The only real trouble I have is the French numbers (it gets very complicated when you get to seventy)!

nth term = success doesn't have to be about maths?

10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 20

70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 90?

I do this almost every time I am counting. I find it harder to count once I get passed 20, as the numbers get bigger. I always have to do a double take when counting in tens after ninety, as I always seem to say 20 instead of 100; maybe because it sounds like nineteen? I don't know. I also often say ninety or sixty after seventy-nine, even though it should obviously be eighty. It just doesn't make sense in my head.

Sequences of numbers can be challenging. Of course, as it is part of the syllabus, we have to do more complicated sequences in GCSE maths class and work out how much it's going up or down by etc. However when they go up by different numbers each time, seeing as I can't hold numbers in my head, it is very difficult to get anywhere at all. And when the nth term gets involved, well, I probably knew what that meant once, for about ten minutes.





...And the Fibonacci sequence sounds like some sort of arrangement of biscuits.