Dyscalculia

Since my last post last summer, life has become much busier. I'm finally in graduate school to earn my Master of Arts in Education and earn my secondary teacher certification. I have one problem, though...math. I have always been poor with numbers yet have managed to get by with math classes within my abilities. However, I have reached an impasse as I now must prove math proficiency at the college level. I have never attained college-level math skills despite earning an associate and bachelor's degree. Somehow, the path I took to obtain my college education allowed me to avoid the math courses that give me the most grief.

For the past few years, I have considered that my weak skills may be more than simply being poor with numbers. The idea of a learning disability has crossed my mind. A person can excel at many subjects and perform dismally in one. With math, I can take a course, be able to do the work (although not necessarily understand what I'm doing, just going through the motions and copying the steps my instructor tells me to follow), and by the time I return home at the end of the day, forget how to do the entire lesson. Sometimes, I can perform well throughout the course, then forget everything within a few weeks after the course has ended and it's like I never took the course in the first place. These issues lead to anxiety and frustration. More than once, I have been reduced to tears because I could not understand how to perform a math function regardless of the amount of study time or methods. In one instance, I had to resist the urge to hurl my textbook through a closed window. I also have problems doing math problems mentally. If I were to attempt to add 2 3-digit numbers in my head, I would require several minutes because I would forget the total for each column and have to start over several times...before becoming fed up and working the problem on paper.

I did a little research and learned about a learning disability that matches all of the problems I contend with every time I encounter math--dyscalculia. I was rather surprised to find this condition. When people hear about learning disabilities, most think of disabilities in language, such as reading, dyslexia; however, some people have disabilities processing and retaining numerical data. Unfortunately, getting evaluated for this is difficult due to the length of time that I have been away from math classes. The diagnostician requires hard data, such as grades, standardized test scores, etc., I have no current data, since the last math class I took was in the early 1990's. One of these days, I would like to know for certain, but until then, I must continue to struggle moving forward despite the lack of required math skills.