NationStates Jolt Archive

after the IQ thread i did some research into a condition i remember being told i had when i had either a proper IQ test or a dyslexia test taken when i was younger (had both, cant remember which).
they called it a kind of numerical dyslexia. i found the condition, info here (http://www.dyscalculia.org/calc.html). its called Dyscalculia and i have every single symptom on the damn list :headbang: ...some of them really quite badly too :(


anyway, anyone else here got dyslexia or dyscalculia?

My sister had some sort of reading problem. I'm not sure what it was, all I know is that when she first learned to write she wrote the letters all in the right order, but the letters all looked like mirror images of what they should.

I don't have dyslexia or dyscalculia myself.

I have dyslexia, but it was only diagnosed when I was 22. apparently I had some highly developed compensating strategies, or something like that! (It just took me 4 goes to write strategies properly, but I'm not sure if that's connected to dyslexia!)

my stepdad is dyslexic with scoliosis. my bf has asperger's with a hint of ocd. i am synaesthetic with a touch of adhd.

so far nobody i know has math problems though.

Yeah, but relatively mild - well unless dysgraphia is counted. I think the only reason that I can read my handwriting is that after I write something the tiniest cue is all I need to remember - which is helpful in some ways, sort of a tactile sense of memory rather than auditory. I mess up forms because keeping what blank goes with what line is weird. My reading comprehension has always been good, but my reading speed is slower than average among those with my level of comprehension, it is a matter of having to really focus to keep words from moving. Walking through stores is fun though - the signs say the most amazing things sometimes :) (yes, I am easily amused).

Time, organization, mental math, transpostion of lists (especially of things like names or numbers where I don't have a clear mental picture), telling left from right are problems.

my stepdad is dyslexic with scoliosis. my bf has asperger's with a hint of ocd. i am synaesthetic with a touch of adhd.

so far nobody i know has math problems though.
synaesthetic? wow i'm impressed - no really. i've done a bit of research into it and it sounds like a really really useful thing to be able to do :)
according to what i have found out about it, it helps greatly with memory. do you have the type where alphanumeric characters appear coloured on the page, or the more common condition of always associating a colour, smell, taste or even physical sensation with certain letters? i heard of some pretty far out ones where people associate textures with smells or tastes, and musical versions - associating musical notes with texture, smell, feeling and/or taste. apparently a number of history's greatest composers were synaesthetic.

i'm sorry if this offends you in any way, but i have become curious about the subject after begining with nothing more than reading a bbc.co.uk news article about it :)

Yeah, but relatively mild - well unless dysgraphia is counted. I think the only reason that I can read my handwriting is that after I write something the tiniest cue is all I need to remember - which is helpful in some ways, sort of a tactile sense of memory rather than auditory. I mess up forms because keeping what blank goes with what line is weird. My reading comprehension has always been good, but my reading speed is slower than average among those with my level of comprehension, it is a matter of having to really focus to keep words from moving. Walking through stores is fun though - the signs say the most amazing things sometimes :) (yes, I am easily amused).

Time, organization, mental math, transpostion of lists (especially of things like names or numbers where I don't have a clear mental picture), telling left from right are problems.

and you typed all that?! :p ;)

sounds like a lot to deal with, but it sounds like you happily live with it - it may not exactly be a debilitating condition, but i respect you for it all the same. i used to pretty much just do the writing backwards and slow reading thing - dyslexia wasn't particularly my problem. that was patterns, maths, abstract ideas (like most maths and music) - i still don't know my times tables, fyi. i've never 'got' musical theory in any way, dispite having been taught it for years at school. playing guitar is a fucking struggle :p (why i want to try dums!). thankfully my parents spotted these difficulties and took me for dyslexia testing, which i was but the institute weren't able to cater for the specifics of me (ie dyscalculia), so we got some expensive tuition twice a week for a few years and since then i have overcome my dyslexia entirely, and learned how to cope/compensate for the dyscalculia (well enough - can't do maths above gcse level at all so trying an economics degree last year was stupid :headbang: )

[/stoned rant]

Dyslexia: d, 9, 6, and P are very often confused in my head. I can read things upside down and backwards because of the effort it has taken to get over this.

Disgraphia: I cannot write legibly without a lot of effort, nor can I draw with my hands. I have learned to draw with pixels, but because before that my art experience had wholly consisted of very badly drawn stick figures, I have a long way to go.

ADD: I go through times when I cannot focus, or cannot focus on what I need to. Also, this keeps me from getting enough sleep without melatonin because my brain won't stop wandering.

Also, I have a really hard time thinking in images, and I have NO sense of direction. I could walk 5 blocks one direction and then turn around and not know instinctively how to get back.

Disgraphia: I cannot write legibly without a lot of effort, nor can I draw with my hands. I have learned to draw with pixels, but because before that my art experience had wholly consisted of very badly drawn stick figures, I have a long way to go.
Wait, there's a name for inability to write and draw? I write so badly I have trouble deciphering my own handwriting at times, and I cannot draw at all. I consistantly failed art class, one year for being unable to satisfactorily complete the first project of the year given the entire year of practice. I also can't draw proportionate shapes or straight lines or anything.

synaesthetic? wow i'm impressed - no really. i've done a bit of research into it and it sounds like a really really useful thing to be able to do :)
according to what i have found out about it, it helps greatly with memory. do you have the type where alphanumeric characters appear coloured on the page, or the more common condition of always associating a colour, smell, taste or even physical sensation with certain letters? i heard of some pretty far out ones where people associate textures with smells or tastes, and musical versions - associating musical notes with texture, smell, feeling and/or taste. apparently a number of history's greatest composers were synaesthetic.


My version is one of the more common ones, where sight and sound are linked. Letters have colors, words have colors that are usually the same as their first letter but occasionally not, and I find it easier to describe music by saying what it "looks like". I don't literally see letters in color or music as it's playing, but when I conceptualize the word or letter or remember the music my brain kind of pulls out a color or image with it.

a- red
b- yellow
c- green
d- yellow
f- green
g- orange
h- hay-colored
i- black
j- magenta
k- pink
l- yellow
m- brown
n- darker brown
o- gray-blue
p- pink
q- think peach yogurt
r- red-brown
s- metallic gray-blue
t- metallic blue-gray
v- silver
w- blue
x- butter-colored
z- black

For some reason the letters U and Y are exempt from specific color, although U is "somewhere in the blue range" and Y is "somewhere around green".

Dyscalculia sounds interesting (though not as fascinating as synaesthetia!), but I wonder if they're not lumping too much in together.
Musical ability and mathematical ability can be viewed as seperate, so problems in one area shouldn't necessarily mean problems in the other.
And the bit about not managing to balance chequebooks, credit cards etc - considering the amount owed world-wide on credit cards, you could argue everyone has that problem!
Likewise, spatial ability isn't exactly a mathematical ability. And they throw in kinasthetic as well at the end.
I'm not saying there isn't a condition called this, but I just think they're lumping other non-specific problems with it. They're covering nearly all of Gardner's intelligences there. A condition wouldn't be so broad, imo.

Reading down the list, I score 7 of those - good language acquisition, chronically late (I always underestimate how long something will take), terrible with money (failed accounting at Uni; I just can't understand the bizarre abstract concept that is money), absolute dreadful at remembering names (a big problem if you're a teacher - I once forgot my own name and had to look at my Driver's licence! To this day I still don't know if I'm me, or if I just had someone else's wallet and so became him), no sense of direction (When I walk out the door, I always feel like I'm facing the opposite direction to what I am and I have to walk 'up' the road to get the train, which in my mind is 'down' the road from where I live), I have no balance whatsoever and the best description I've ever had of my dancing is that I look like a sick bear and finally absolutely no musical ability at all. I love music and listen to it constantly. I have 300+ CDs and another 100 odd downloaded. Yet if you asked me to hum my favourite song, I couldn't. Which makes it look very much like I have Dyscalculia. Usually scoring 7 out of 10 is enough to be diagnosed with the conditon.

However, I'm extremely good at mathematics. I can remember numbers far easily than anything else. I can multiply big numbers in my head comfortably (I once worked out how many seconds someone was alive for before they did using a calculator). So I don't think I have this condition.

However, I'm extremely good at mathematics. I can remember numbers far easily than anything else. I can multiply big numbers in my head comfortably (I once worked out how many seconds someone was alive for before they did using a calculator).
It used to be that when I was really bored, i'd pick two random large numbers and multiply them together in my head to keep occupied. Or I'd try to find large primes, but I'm not very good at that.

I was tested for dyscalcuia ages ago but it turned out my being rubbish at maths was just me being stupid :rolleyes: but on a realted dys- note I do have dyspraxia which to be honest doesn't really bother me that much anymore(at least I dont think it does)

My version is one of the more common ones, where sight and sound are linked. Letters have colors, words have colors that are usually the same as their first letter but occasionally not, and I find it easier to describe music by saying what it "looks like". I don't literally see letters in color or music as it's playing, but when I conceptualize the word or letter or remember the music my brain kind of pulls out a color or image with it.

a- red
b- yellow
c- green
d- yellow
f- green
g- orange
h- hay-colored
i- black
j- magenta
k- pink
l- yellow
m- brown
n- darker brown
o- gray-blue
p- pink
q- think peach yogurt
r- red-brown
s- metallic gray-blue
t- metallic blue-gray
v- silver
w- blue
x- butter-colored
z- black

For some reason the letters U and Y are exempt from specific color, although U is "somewhere in the blue range" and Y is "somewhere around green".

I had something which sounds like this as a child. but the school I went to systematically discouraged it, and I was punished for talking about it. I still associate some words with colours, but because I spent so much of my childhood concentrating on ignore this aspect of my thought process it's not very well developed in my head!

I probably am either dyslexic or Dyscalculia, most of that list appliues to me; too expensive to get tested for it though...