#i have dyscalculia im struggling enough

[toytulini]

can yall just say the numbers im fucking begging you

Ok this is something my gf and i disagree about but im less interested in settling the disagreement and more curious what other people think so

[linked-maze]

Your Links having the same issues as you sounds super interesting. What are some of the things you struggle with? If you don't mind me asking?

this is such an old ask- im so sorry for never answering- anyway this is gonna be a very personal answer- so for the people who don't care about this and are only here for the comic, so sorry, and plz ignore XD so some of the things I struggle with are: Toxic shame. People who often feel like they're not good enough and are ashamed of themselves and it curses them to self-sabotaging behaviors. Anxious attachment style. People with anxious attachment styles struggle to feel secure in their friendships and relationships. While they long to feel close to their friends and partners, this need is often driven by fears of abandonment, mistrust, and low self-esteem. Autism. I don't wanna go too deep into this one since it's such a broad one and I'm still not educated enough in my opinion. Dyscalculia. is a learning disability that inhibits a person's ability to use and have a proper sense of numbers. and it also affects my way of direction at times. I might have more but those are the ones I struggle with every single day- I'm 23 years old and don't have any exams yet- so I'm still in school but in special classes for people with some type of disability and learning difficulties. I have put some of the issues I struggle with onto some of the Links in my comic- and also some other stuff that I have tried educating myself on to try and put some more representation out there! ^w^

[spaciebabie]

thank you so much for explaining in detail and without contempt. i have math anxiety and maybe dyscalculia and often make small stupid mistakes like that. it doesn't help when ppl treat me badly because of that. asking questions and being corrected and learning should be a positive thing, not being used for someone to look down on you. anyway, i learn best by making mistakes, b/c then it gets drilled into my head. but it's important to not be shamed for making mistakes. i'm starting to overcome my math anxiety and do better. i just need a little extra time to think about it and time to check for little mistakes too. when i get that, i do very well actually. for the first time i am enjoying studying math and physics. thanks again. i will now forevermore think of you with fondness in my heart.❤️‍🩹

hey you're welcome buddy! i have dyscalculia too and had math anxiety for the longest time. truly the best way ta get over that stuff (less abt the dyscalculia but more abt the anxiety) is having people coach you in a nonjudgmental way! math is so much more enjoyable when you're not worrying about all that stuff :))

(also if you're in the public school system they really just like kill all drive ta learn math its so bad. learning math in college is so much more fun imo b/c you're aroud ppl who reall really care abt what they're learning. they also care ta help you so YOU learn as well)

im lucky ta have had a really cool calc prof that knows the struggle of not feeling "smart enough" ta do math and she made sure ta take her time n explain concepts in full detail when we didn't get something. i hope that things get better for you!

you're not less than for not understanding certain concepts immediately! everybody learns at their own pace :)

[l3vi4than]

NGL ID BE FUCKING HAPPY TO TEACH MATH IN SCHOOL/UNI IF IT WOULDNT HAVE TO BE CHARITY BASED HELL TORTURE JAIL

seriously the amount of money you get as educator in any non-private education facility is laughable, while the responsibility and the amount of unnecessary paperwork is ridiculously abundant

also I want to teach HOW I THINK IS RIGHT not how some dude from the ministry told his secretary to interpret a century-old book on teaching monkeys use abacus. I spent a fucking decade learning and researching this, and you still don’t trust me to do this job??? Why you even funded my education then??? Why you bothered to issue me a PhD degree if you don’t trust I’m able to think independently? Why you specify you need a person of my qualifications if you actually want someone to just blindly follow a stupid rulebook???

because I refuse to ignore that different kids/adults inevitably have different learning needs and paces, and that the current math education is just stupid “learn by heart this table” nonsense with zero underlying context and concepts explained that is only focused on passing the following assessment and lacks the necessary applicability training

It breaks my heart to watch people claim they have dyscalculia and being unable to do math just of sheer fear of being called “stupid” all while they are easily manipulating large table data and performing complex matrix analysis in mind when it comes to video games or cross stitch or whatever their hobby is. Like, girl, dear, you’re not stupid and you don’t have dyscalculia, you’re traumatised and scared af of even trying to touch something that reminds you of your school math.

And I get it, it’s valid, but I promise it doesn’t have to affect your quality of life, math isn’t evil and you can still learn it easily enough and im here to help if you need it. You struggle with percents not because you’re dumb, but because you lack the context that it is just a different way of writing down a decimal proportion.

Now, what was it about that cookie dough you were so proud about yesterday? You said three cups of flour and one cup of milk right? I don’t have a cup, im gay, I have only this tekila shots, but ten of these is a cup I guess. So uhhhh how do we do this…

it’s 3:1 proportion right? So if I have three shoots of flour and one shot of milk it’s correct but won’t be enough for even a single cookie. But if I do this again (making it now 6 shots of flour and 2 shots of milk) it’s still the same proportion but amount is doubled, so it’s enough for a cookie now!

So, let’s do this again while we still have milk I guess haha… now it’s 75 shots of flour in this bowl and here is 25 shots of milk here. Yeah, looks good? Cool, it only took 100 shots to make this dough, less than an orgy and 25 of them were milk. So I guess your cookie dough is 25% milk huh?

See, it’s not that scary, you actually use it every day. Now, it wasn’t about the cookies, im sorry, we were actually mixing up a margarita, so slaaaaay queen and let’s proceed to the statistical analysis, so as you know already the Lebesgue integrals are-…

assume for the sake of this poll that the ubi is a comfortable living wage and that you can get a job in any field you’d like.

also if you picked ‘for another reason’ pls put why in the tags/comments im curious :]

[huntertherapyeras]

hey, rent is due in 9 days and im still struggling. if y'all could help me out i would REALLY! appreciate it. i am still looking for work i can do from my wheelchair and not having much luck finding something accessible, as because of my dyscalculia i can't count money for entry level cashier jobs and i am not qualified for much else due to my lack of a degree. before my disability progressed, i was a nanny and gymnastics coach, which is obviously impossible for me to do now. employers are really weird about hiring wheelchair users and its so frustrating... ive been teaching rudimentary gymnastics lessons virtually with the aid of visual examples but its a pretty niche field and its definitely not enough to over things like rent unfortunately

paypal.me/asteronauts

cashapp: $asteronauts

venmo: @/asteronauts

[festeringneondistraction]

I want to write poetry again but its just not happening!

Lately I've been so in my head. So many feelings and worries, its just real mental illness hours so in other words: I'm going through it. I've been journaling and posting and that's all fine and good but usually I can take those base thoughts and flesh them out into poetry! I'm very creatively frustrated right now because I have the urge to create but I just... cant. I try!! I definitely try and its not that I'm being a perfectionist about it at least not consciously. I firmly believe in making not-good art just for the sake of art. Bad art is amazing! But its just lots of stress intrusive thoughts then just TV static. The combination of extreme near constant anxiety, and brain fog.

Just to clarify somethings I'm at a very difficult season of my life right now for a lot of reason. I'm also a bit of an neurological alphabet soup (multiple diagnosis) so this is what I'm dealing with. Side note self-diagnosis is valid and you can kindly leave my blog if you think its not :). I'm just clarifying what doctors have told me and what else might be going on. Also I realize some of these are so co-morbid that its a bit redundant but I'm just listing it anyway.

CONFRIMED: Autism, depression, PTSD, ADHD, Social Anxiety/general anxiety, dyspraxia (also called developmental coordination disorder), dermatillomania, and a nice history of self-harm.

COMPLICATED: Chronic migraine (I do get migraines fairly consistently with aura I've had doctors acknowledge my migraines but no official diagnosis yet) mysophobia, ARFID (its extreme obvious for me that I have very real and severe food issues, I've just never talked to a doctor), dyslexia and dyscalculia. I was pretty much treated for both and struggled in those areas significantly. Just never put on paper to my knowledge.

SUSPECTED: OCD, maybe all of this is just CPTSD? who knows.

What im trying to say is there is a lot to unpack in my brain. For anyone who actually read this far thank you i love you id love to talk :)! But really who knows what's causing what sometimes. And when you struggle with brain fog and poor introspection??? What am I even supposed to do.

Id also like to mention im a daily weed smoker. I try not to smoke all day I try and wait till (weirdly enough) 4:20 is actually a great time of day to start lol. But seriously i at bare minimum wait till 420 I usually try to go a little longer.

Weed is one of the only thing that helps with the anxiety. As I am reading all this back and my landry list of diagnosis is right in front of me.... WOW im a high anxiety person. and there's shit I didn't even mention. It all really loops back to Autism and Anxiety. Its to the point where ill go to a friends house.. im feeling anxious but excited and I think im masking well. Then after like two minutes of talking to me my friend will almost always say "Shade you need more weed." Like damn is it that bad. People find it hard to talk to me sometimes because im so high anxiety these days. It used to be that I could talk to anyone and make them feel comfortable. I might be freaking out the whole time but It used to be that I was so good at masking my anxiety and autism people wouldn't notice.

Also hi! My name is Shade and yes its my actual legal name. This rant about poetry turned into like a mental illness recap and informal intro. If my blog gets even the tiniest bit of attention i'll do a proper more light hearted intro. Just really speaks to the ADHD I guess. I have so much more to say but if I let myself keep typing it will become a compulsion and I wont stop for hours so Im done now :)

[beauty-grace-outer-space]

your tags on my post slapped me across the face. yes fucking yes. the fall from academic grace hits a whole lot harder when you've been excessively built up and built up for years and then come crashing down. i constantly feel like im letting everyone and younger self down. the whole thing about IDENTITY is so true too! x adhd-vibes

Well, your post came into my house and punched me in the gut, so...

But no, I really genuinely appreciate posts talking about the gifted child + neurodivergence duality because it’s... a lot. And I feel like I’m only just starting to understand-- well, my entire life, basically. 

My entire life past the age of ~13 has been a constant up and down of thriving and burnout, a lot of self loathing and doubt over my perceived failure, and a lot of depression and anxiety. And I just found out last year that a fair portion of it can likely be chalked up to the fact that I’ve had ADHD my entire life, my parents found out when I was four years old, and no one told me. 

I started kindergarten at four. I was already reading chapter books. I’d finish reading the assignments before the teacher even finished handing them out, and be up and causing distractions because I was bored. They talked about bumping me to second grade, but I was already the youngest in my class and they didn’t want to create more of an age gap. 

I did first grade half in English, half in Japanese to keep me “challenged”. The Japanese teacher hated that I was so young, and after a while refused to teach me. 

My second grade teacher made a rule that I could sit any way I liked, or move around however I wanted, so long as I could touch my desk. 

My third grade teacher set up a play area for students who finished their work early, and I spent most of my time there. 

My fourth grade teacher recommended fantasy novels and read to us during downtime. 

My fifth grade teacher helped me and my friends start a writing club, and she’d read our short stories and give us notes so we could work on our drafts when we were done with our schoolwork. 

And then sixth grade and algebra happened and I could not for the life of me do the assignments well. I worked with friends in a study group. I had three different math teachers try to help me, in case one clicked differently. They’d watch me do the work, step by step, and one of two things would happen: 

1. Either I’d do the work perfectly, but the answer was entirely wrong and they couldn’t figure out why 

or

2. I’d do the work all wrong, but get the right answer every time. 

But since you had to show your work for full credit, I went from a straight A student to mostly A’s and a C in math, no matter what I did. 

My self esteem tanked. Most of my memories from middle school are of sitting alone at the dining room table sobbing because I felt stupid, and like a failure, and I just wanted to die, and sitting at a table focusing on only one thing with no background noise or stimulation was torture in and of itself. I finally got my mom to let me listen to the radio while I worked, and it helped a little, but night after night I’d sit there, sob through my math homework, and wish to disappear. 

All of the self-loathing and stress manifested into extreme anxiety. I started washing my hands constantly, because that I could control. My hands cracked and bled. I kept washing. 

I started self harming, and my mom found out and took me to see a therapist (who is still my therapist to this day), and I was diagnosed with OCD and Major Depressive Disorder, as well as Seasonal Affective Disorder.

By the time high school started, the handwashing had mostly stopped but still flared up again occasionally, and I was on track to graduate with highest honors following the “College Prep Honors” curriculum track. I made the National Honor Society, and did student government as well as zero hour choir and drama. I took Honors English and excelled. 

But to complete the degree, I’d have to take Algebra I freshman year, Algebra II Honors sophomore year, Algebra III/Trig junior year, and Calculus senior year. 

I got a C in Algebra I. I lost my National Honor Society status because of the GPA drop. I quit student government because I was ashamed. 

I was told to drop Algebra II Honors two weeks in, because I was going to fail the class. This meant I would not get the diploma I wanted, but the secondary “College Prep” diploma. 

I fell into a deep depression, decided I was stupid, and stopped trying. My report cards after that for the rest of high school were an assortment of A’s, B’s, C’s, even a D or two. I hated myself for not living up to my potential, for being a disappointment to my parents, for being so stupid. 

I went back to therapy. I graduated high school. I went to college. I burnt out. 

I took a gap year because I was suicidal and didn’t know what to do. I went back to therapy. 

I transferred to a university. I burnt out. I dropped out, because I was suicidal and didn’t know what to do. I went back to therapy. 

And when I was 27 years old, I found a box of old school stuff from elementary school, and as my mom and I laughed about it she told me that an administrator who specialized in identifying attention deficit disorders had observed me in kindergarten at the request of my teacher because I was causing distractions, told them that he was entirely certain I had what was at the time called ADD... and not to have me officially diagnosed in order to keep it out of my school record and avoid any “challenges to my desired educational path”.  

Teachers were told, and chosen specifically to work with me and not against me, which I appreciate greatly. 

I was never told. 

On the one hand, I can see how my parents just didn’t want me to go through life believing I had something “wrong” with me, didn’t want me to be held back from pursuing any classes I wanted to take because of my “diagnosis”, and didn’t want me to be “unnecessarily medicated”. I appreciate the time and care that went into trying to guide me along and give me safe environments to be my authentic self without being told it was a hindrance or a “problem”. 

But the more I learn the more I can’t help but wish someone had told me. 

Because I spent the last 16 years of my life thinking that somewhere along the way I had “lost” something, or “failed”, and really it was a pretty predictable and manageable sequence of events. 

I’ve since learned that a lot of the things I’ve always done that I’ve felt uncomfortable or “odd” about... are stims. Minor ones, but stims, nonetheless. 

I’ve since learned that I was bullied pretty severely for being “weird” in elementary school, but I have no memory of it. 

I’ve since learned that dyscalculia is thing, and very well could have contributed to my ongoing struggle with math. 

And for the rest of my life I will wonder if knowing would have changed anything. If my depression is a side effect of this thing I didn’t know about myself, or a separate piece of me. Who I might have been if my entire identity wasn’t tied to my perceived sudden loss of intelligence and potential. 

Anyway. I’ve rambled quite enough. If anyone wants to talk about any of this, or vent, or ask questions, feel free. This is the post we are referring to, by the by. 

[diwyllian]

SUGGESTIONS TO DIVERSIFY YOUR CHARACTERS AND NPCS FURTHER…

I made this small list of mental/physical disabilities and other mental and physical disorders for my rp group, but as I’m currently on a hiatus from the rpc I thought I could share it with the rest of you in the meantime! This is far from a coherent list of all things disabilities, as there’s so many of them out there and I’d always ask that you do you own research of do’s and don’ts for each of these on your own. Some have really helpful guides floating around Tumblr and some of these have youtube channels with some lovely and helpful people who wants nothing but for you to understand them better! 

Also please remember that a disability isn’t a tragedy, yes some may struggle with theirs and some days will be worse than others, but don’t make any of these their all around suffering and struggle. When writing a disabled character it should be a character with a disability, not a disability with a character slapped on top. I might also suggest giving any of these to NPCs in your characters’ lives, aka a mother who is mute or an ex who happens to be a burn victim. If you have suggestions for this list, feel free to inbox/IM me at any time!

Bipolar disorder

Learning disabilities

Dyslexia/Dyscalculia

Development co-ordination disorder/Dyspraxia

Muteness 

Deaf/hard of hearing

Blindness/limited vision (Mute, Deaf and Blind all work under a spectrum and one may not be fully one thing - as in, a person may be partially blind and could still be able to see outlines and shadows but consider their vision bad enough to simply warrant calling themselves blind.)

Multiple Sclerosis

Paraplegia

Wheelchair bound/In the need of wheelchair aid (It’s the same here! Some may need a wheelchair 24/7 to get around, others may only need it for longer trips outside of the house etc.)

The usage of a cane or other aids to move around (They can mix it with having to use a cane for support when they don’t use a wheelchair or other type of aid.)

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder 

Type 1 or Type 2 Diabetes (One does not need to be overweight to be affected by diabetes! It can either be passed down through biological reasons or due to bad habits.)

Antisocial Personality Disorder (Usually what people know as sociopaths or psychopaths, but has been changed to ASPD to remove stigma. They’re not all murderers and bad people and some will grow aware of their own differences to others without ASPD and thus can get therapy to make sure they don’t cause harm.)

Autism

Down syndrome

Dwarfism

High blood pressure

Heart conditions

Arthritis (Inflammation of the joints) 

Rheumatism (Part of the arthritis diagnosis)

Burnout

Paranoia

Amputee

Dermatitis/Eczema

Psoriasis

Scoliosis

Burn victim

Tourette Syndrome

Narcolepsy

Parkinson’s Disease  

Schizophrenia (This is not about having a split personality, it’s about seeing hallucinations (often hearing voices), having delusions and disorganized thinking with some.) 

Dissociative Identity Disorder (This one is about having a split personality called a system, mainly due to harsh childhood trauma and acts as a defense mechanism.) 

Schizoaffective Disorder (Is a collection of disorders)

Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder 

Cerebral Palsy

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome

Epilepsy

Borderline Personality Disorder

[caddyheron]

Hcs for Kate, Eva, or Chess?

take some kate and eva hcs!!!! some are sad i promise im not sad rn lol

KATE: - bigender, uses she/he pronouns and has no preference. - has ADHD and has been tested for dyslexia but it’s inconclusive every time. - was held back a year and that’s why she’s so worried about not getting into college. - after chess dies, kate really struggles to form any other platonic connections with people, eva helps her through it well enough so she can make friends at college, but kate never claims anyone has a best friend anymore because she’s scared of them dying/getting hurt/leaving her. - really likes smoothies.

EVA: - demigirl, she/they, gets really dysphoric really easily, espcially when they’re having a they/them day. - autistic and has dyscalculia (number dyslexia). - hates smoothies because she’ll always find strange chunks of fruit in them and dies a little each time. - has trauma after the sleepover and literally can’t see kate anywhere near a knife without having a panic attack. - always refuses to admit she’s sick until kate convinces them to admit it and then she gets very clingy.

[boutonniered-blog]

(( this isn’t really here or there, ive just got cowboy dnd on the mind and ruminating over dming again. its about accessibility and why its humm important!!!

but anyways- accessibility is like, really important to me? i struggle immensely with dyscalculia- i struggle to make sense of graphs, clocks, use my damn calculator, rudimentary math for even adding or subtracting rolls is kind of beyond me or else it takes far too long to comfortably fit into the span of time of a turn, counting the number of days until or past something, etc: it stinks, because im often looked down on for being Not Really Smart or being Lazy And Not Applying Myself because while i am academically gifted in language arts and those soft skills easily transfer to other subjects, i have always struggled with math- i didnt know how to rearrange basic equations until the year before senior year of highschool. 

and while i can cope and muddle my way through things (i used to memorize equation variants all the way up until i hit the wall with academic physics and broke down, for example) its like. tiring, and embarrassing, to be the person who can’t do the seemingly simple basic mental math to calculate how much older an older siblings is or whatever else.

and like for the longest time i have wanted to play dnd, only i was immensely intimidated because of how much math is involved with debuffs and buffs and rolling for stats and saving throws and all that and- i was really sad because i wanted to play, but i felt like i couldnt because I Just Wasnt Smart Enough To, even though i was confident in my improv and general writing abilities having done roleplay and ran my own arg before. and it SUCKED missing out on this hobby that i really, ardently wanted to join in on, but felt ashamed and stupid and incapable of playing because... brain broke on main! and it was really, really embarrassing. 

anyways! fast forward to my dnd group over the summer- although i had butchered and cribbed the stats layout and mangled google sheets into making very rudimentary, basic scores, of 1-5 and short explanations of what each did to contextualize these linguistically for myself, and a consensus to basically just one One Fucking Die (d20) for Everything and then a d6 for damage because the general health was ~25 or so to make it easier on me, and was basically just a combination of para and script rp, i was getting like. really overwhelmed with tracking damage, especially with the confusion of having Many Characters At Once and also, healers, so i often lost track and would get flustered as hell while playing dm and very. upset on main about it because i felt like Ohghgh. Elle Being Dumb Baby Again

but! one of my friends, hes in school for compsci and programs stuff, he made me!! a little discord bot!! and “courtney” as she was dubbed after one of the npc healers, like, could do the math on peoples healing and damage and also reset it at the end of matches. i like legitimately cried when he showed me her and the little guide on how to use her too with Examples... because i struggle a lot with parsing through how to operate discord bots and frequently have to summon up their to do commands list thing Pretty much every time, and, like, bro

like it seems like a little thing Maybe in terms of her use in game but it Really made it so much fucking easier for me to manage what was going on. especially because if i had trouble reading the numbers or figuring out the damage, other people were able to use the command prefix to like Do It For Me and usually what would happen is we would designate it as Someone’s Job For The Night To and like... it was so much more fun and engaging and i didnt have to like, stress out or be upset over not being able to do math and like? Bro. I Got Emotional, same as how when i figured out that i could use our rollbot for basic math and i still use that little guy in fucking every day conversation when it comes to ages or months or stuff but like

the point being? i was really upset and sad over being excluded or Struggling with something that was supposed to be fun because of stuff i couldnt help, and it really made me so fucking Happy to be able to participate just like everyone else but also that my friend recognized a need that he could fill and Went Ahead And Did That like. wow. im emotionally squishy. the fact that my friends were patient and accommodated my Whack ass “baby dnd” or loose approach to letting them choose their own stats rather than rolling and discussing how many turns should something last and keeping track of it, didnt mind me fucking running to the rollbot for like five times three or something, were cool with helping with courtney like.... Uhm.... MY HEART?

and so tl;dr: adjusting stuff so that Everyone can have fun is like... really important... and i appreciate it SO much because i wanna have fun! just like everyone else, yknow? Thasnk i love to talk

[rickwardsinnerhands]

feeling some kind of way

I dont particularly want to cry about this to anyone in my real life so I'm setting this free to the internet (fly fly) also this means my BFF who is my mutual on tumblr should look away

I'm just like mad rn. my dad used to basically torture me with math when I was a kid (FYI I am super deamatic) but I'd try to get him to help me with homework, because my mom was often busy working, or making dinner or whatever (info:parents were divorced)

so I'd try and get him to help, but first I'd bring out the calculator and he'd take that away because I should know the "proper" way to do it. I'd get upset because the teacher showed us how to do it with a calculator, but he'd go "oh I'll teach you" then would basically berate me for an hour until I was in tears. I could never do it fast enough, and I couldn't do math in my head but if I tried to write down the numbers he'd take the paper and like. it sucked. I've always struggled with math and my dad would always find a way to express his dissapointment in me that made me feel so stupid. I still struggle with that. because I can't remember dates and I'm bad at math and I can't remember like facts, but that was the kind of smarts that mattered to my dad and he always got so frustrated with me, like I was willfully sucking. basically every time we played some sort of trivia game (my dad loved those) it was like an exercise in humiliation because he always kept score and you can bet the kid who did the worst got called out.

mostly I feel like math was a punishment I had to endure. and it just seems unfair to me in this moment, that my dad couldn't just understand how hard it was for me, and that I was doing my best. that he just had to make it harder. I've been looking at dyscalculia tests and stuff and now suspecting I may have it. all these websites say shit like, "if your child gets help early they can still be a productive member of society!" like im some asshole who isn't worth anything cause I'm bad at math. I've felt like some kind of idiot since I was very young, and I'm trying to not feel like that anymore.

it just sucks that shit like that can still be affecting me. to feel like some kind of loser who isn't going anywhere and won't achieve anything. like when does this shit get easier?? like is life this hard for everyone?? I wish I had a way to gage it.

anyway my dad can kiss my ass.

[avellanas-nutty-empire]

Every time I say I want to become a math teacher they respond with thi ngns along the lines of "why? Math sucks and I'm low-key afraid of it and this changes how I feel about you ever so slightly. You want to torture children in this way?" But the real reason I want to is....

Math doesn't change. Like, it has never really changed over history. Not the way it's taught, not the way it functions. But I'll change it. It's a stable enough subject that will allow me to play with different methods of teaching. I already have an outline of an idea to play KAHOOT! On day fucking one of school to see what they all remember from last year instead of sending them home with homework

I'm doing my best to learn everyone's spesific grievances with math and school so I can figure out ways to avoid them in my classroom. Im trying to figgure out how dyscalculia and other learning disorders effect students enough where they auffer in class but dont qualify for the proper extra help they need. And ngl, the cards are stacked against me. The reason school sucks is because the govornment sucks. Most teachers quit in the first 5 years and the most common reason is it's just not what they expected. But I'm over here knowing it's going to be shit, knowing it's going to be difficult for me to achieve the good new teaching skills for math that I seek, knowing I'll think about quitting. I might even quit before my first year as a teacher, but if I make it. Many more after me will succeed with less effort than I did. And considering how much I'm going to struggle, it'll be well worth it. I won't quit at the first sign of defeat

So if yall got something to say about school and math, fucking tag me I'm listening and taking diligent notes

People don’t hate math. They hate being confused, intimidated, and embarrassed by math. Their problem is with how it’s taught.

[rockpapercompass]

back story: i had a field trip right and we have to make a FINAL map and cross section the morning after.

no draft, straight to final.

this is a new thing cause we usually submit a draft map the morning after and weeks later we submit a final map and a cross section.

now, i don’t want to be that person but my nt peers were struggling to complete it, you can imagine the struggle for a person who has adhd AND dyscalculia.

i spoke to my lecturer and she refuse to give me extension. i didn’t want to make a deal out of it and let it go and went on to the trip without anyting but hope to not screw it up.

but woopie doo i fucked my map and i didnt have enough time to fix it. i thought of letting it go but it’s been bothering me for a week now.

so i emailed the examiner and hod in hope i can do a second one. because i know i deserve to pass, i know how to do things. i just… need an extra time.

and im kinda scared that i wont get any of it.

i hope the universe is kind to me. i really need this.

[lets-talk-dyscalculia]

hi, I'm sort of depressed because I've dyscalculia. No one understands that I can't count till 40 without getting confused. Or that I don't know what time it is etc. I get really sad because people say I'm just dumb. But if they only knew that I worked so hard.. and it's still not enough.. my teacher also sort of made fun of me in front of the class. & since then my anxiety got worse. I already cry if strangers ask me stuff with digits in it. I don't know what to do :(

Thats so tough im sorry youre having to go through this, with what sounds like little support. Unfortunately I haven't got a magic solution, I have been through what you're going through now. Eventually I was given a diagnoses and found people that support me, most of them with disabilities of their own. As for the teacher humiliating you, that is something I struggled with through high school it happens far too much and it's why I spent many years hating math and having really bad anxiety pertaining to it. In college the classes are bigger so it happens less. I have also gotten good and simply saying I have a disability which generally shuts people up. But it doesn't help you in the moment and for that i'm so sorry. I wonder if you have spoken to the teacher? Sometimes they don't realize how hurtful jokes can be. As for strangers asking you things I have developed a few little tricks. When asked about the time I simply say my phone is dead or off or I show them the screen so I haven't got to read the numbers. When asked about money or having to pay for something I always round up. I pay with larger bills, I horde the change then give it to my mom to take to the bank for bigger notes. That helps. I also pretend to be scatterbrained, I pretend I don't bother learning when a class ends if someone asks me how much time is left in class even if i have tried to learn it. For some dumb reason being a bad student is more acceptable that working hard but still struggling at something. I have lied before and said I didn't feel like doing homework when I had actually spent hours on it. Anyway i'm so sorry you're in the situation you're in. I've been there it's miserable i can only hope I have helped a little. It won't be forever. Message me anytime.

[mechanicalriddle]

okay. is this a dyscalculia thing

i do engineering. im pretty far in and i really dont wanna turn back at this point, so ill keep going, but im looking into getting tested.

so like. if i am looking at a problem, or like, at a solution for a problem in reference. if everything is not clearly labelled, it takes me FOR-EVER to decipher it. like bad handwriting? i just missed that a beam was im compression because when i saw “comp” on the sheet it was literally like i was looking at another language. my eyes SKIPPED it COMPLETELY. 

additionally, okay. engineering is a lot of solving one equation and then cramming it into another equation. it’s like, basic ass algebra. but once you introduce like, greek letters n shit, i start getting lost. i lose the ability to track the same variables in different equations. i have to go back, pick through my work, and PAINSTAKINGLY copy it back down. in addition, i can’t rearrange algebraic equations in my head very well. even the most basic function requires me to write it out, sometimes step-by-step because a positive or negative sign confuses me. i have to switch signs on sides of an equation manually.

is this just like. Regular Struggle Math type stuff? or does this sound like dyscalculia? my classmate’s work is so much neater than mine. im all over the space and spitballing on my paper. also FORGET estimation arithmetic in my head, struggled with times tables as a child, and also, fuck, math is hard. cool, but hard.

is this enough that i should get tested about it? i was confirmed with a diagnosis of dyspraxia at a young age, i have clinically tested deficiencies in executive functioning & also i am diagnosed with aspergers. also my dad has dyscalculia, he was diagnosed by a learning disabilities therapist though the diagnosis was informal,

should i, like, be freaking out, for real. im not bailing on engineering. i cant and wont. regardless of what happens i will keep going... though, it would be nice to know for sure 

[lets-talk-dyscalculia]

imo A LOT of people definitely don't understand how LDs work and how they can affect us as individuals in diff ways. They seem to think it's either some condition where it only applies in academic situations or that it no longer exists once you turn 18. i've had pretty bad experiences w/ declaring my condition at work (& even professors bec well the school isn't gonna hold ur hand u gotta reach out urself) and it's made me cautious- i was either shot down/they think i'm making an excuse (cont'd)

Part 2) anything to help me. I've had a hard time trying to explain to everyone what the problem is, and it took some googling to find a post that you made back in December of last year about something similar (/post/134326565903/so-i-have-dyscalculia-and-i-was-diagnosed-a-couple). I just don't know what to do. I need this class so I can get into statistics, which I need for my major and my minor and I'm afraid that I'm going to end up failing this class because I just can't do the math that's

Part 3) being taught. Another part to this is that my math homework is online, which is very very hard for me to do. Do you think that could have something to do with my dyscalculia too? Anyway, I thought I would ask and see if you had any suggestions for me? I'm just at a loss as to what to do when I've essentially been left to do this all on my own the whole semester

Response: you are in the exact same position as me. I wish I had better advice for you because I have no idea what I'm doing either. I'm not going to lie, I gave up on a few majors because of my inability to take the math classes... including statistics which I took for about 4 months before nearly bursting into tears in the middle of class. then I stopped going. do not take a giant lecture class.

sorry to open that off negatively, but your questions are exactly the ones im trying to answer for myself. I have all my homework online too, and the classes move so fast I learn nothing then have to teach myself all of it at home. the only real advice I can give you is tell you what I have been doing/ been told and none of it is really satisfying advice. 

almost all colleges have tutoring where math students will help you with homework and studying. I go there often enough now (with a friend), and we need so much help that the supervising professor tends to just hover over our table to help us, while that doesn't make it easier it at least means that I turn in all my homework with decent grades because I got help. if you get as high grades as possible on homework/classwork you don't have to score as highly on the tests. I also have a tutor who I pay, but the tutoring centers on campus are pretty good and you can stay as long as you want to.

a lot of people tell me to try taking a math class at a community college, which I haven't tried yet. Its supposedly easier to pass. and uh. honestly keeping a positive outlook, which is a lot to ask because the struggle and the failing does get to you. but if you try and stay positive and work hard and just take the class again until you pass. it doesn't solve the problem, but universities don't really give us a lot of options. 

I'm so sorry I didn't have better advice, the advice I gave you is the same advice that makes me angry when people give it to me, because we shouldn't have to do those things. but your questions are literally EXACTLY what i'm dealing with right now, so at least take comfort in knowing you're not alone with it. let me know if you need anything else.