Ok, let's break down dyscalculia, the math-related learning disability that no one knows or talks about:
- it doesn't just affect math! dyscalculia can make it difficult to hold a rhythm, dance, perceive accurate depth perception, keep a consistent driving speed, be on time for events, remember names, or remember whose turn it is in games
- as a kid, you may have learned multiplication facts only to completely forget them soon after, no matter how much you practiced
- you may struggle to read analog clocks, count on your fingers, use calculators for basic things, get extreme anxiety while doing math, struggle to read a tape measure, have to count the dots on a dice every time, and avoid games that require any sequence-based motor skills like fighting games, just dance, guitar hero, etc
- an estimated 4-7% of kids have it, which means 1-2 kids per classroom
- in an MRI, people with dyscalculia doing a math problem use less efficient parts of their brain and bypass parts of the brain associated with calculations
- people with dyslexia are WAY more likely to also have dyscalculia, and it frequently coincides with ADHD and other forms of neurodivergence
- it is the least understood and least diagnosed of all learning disabilities, in part because of the common belief that "everyone is bad at math"
here is a good online test to assess if you show signs of dyscalculia
