#dyscalcula

[totsandnuggsrebloggs]

A Poem About My Experience in UK Schools :)

I cannot swim. Not because I don’t know how to swim. Not because I am too lazy to swim but because my legs are made of lead. I am drowning. Please toss me a life raft so I can show you that it is not my lack of knowledge of how to swim that is stopping me from drowning. Let me paddle in the water and explain how I know what my legs and hands and spine and head are doing. I know how to do it all. But I cannot trust my own body to keep me afloat because my legs are made of lead. No, telling me to just float, telling me to just swim does not work and has never worked. After all my legs are made of lead. But you do not listen I do not have a single sheet of paper signed and legally diagnosing me with legs that are made of lead. But you have seen it in class, you can see it in my scores, you can see it in the way I swim without a life raft that I am making the correct movements, I am swimming I just cannot stay afloat. I am disabled but you won’t listen. I am disabled and there is a way to diagnose me but I do not qualify. I do not qualify because I am not part of your society. I am not part of your culture. I am a leech on your country sucking up your precious resources so I can stay out of the water and stay lazy. I don’t want to be out of the water. I want to swim. I see my peers swimming so fast and so well and I think, I just think, if I could suck it up and float than I could be as fast and as good as them. And the worst part is that, even if I did float, even if I did get a diagnosis, would anything change? Would I get a raft? Would I be able to keep up with everyone else for once? 

I cannot swim. My legs are made of lead. And when you throw me into the deep end, I sink farther underneath the dark waters as the pressure crushes my skull and my limbs and my confidence far far away from everyone else and I can hear you say just above the surface, we’ll work on that some more, and if we can’t get it right this time, we’ll just have to try again next year.

And I ask muffled and unheard by the silty water, and how many more years will that take?

[murcielagatito]

for my bad at numbers bitches *pensive booty emoji*

[aikoiya]

DP HC - Neurodivergent Jack

Jack Fenton has ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, & dyscalcula, as well as an object permanence problem.

Part of this is inspired by a story on ao3 by @weshney. The story is "Portal Panic."

[hollowedskin]

idk what its like these days (though i dont have very great expectations) but school was so hostile for me growing up with undiagnosed dyscalcula.  I could usually get the answer if i was allowed to be alone to figure it out without distractions, and not be berated for having to do things the slow way, or mocked for having to count on my fingers instead of just be able to do additions in my head. 

And while yes i was bullied badly in school, this shit about maths was from my teachers. All of my primary school teachers and all my maths teachers throughout high school acted like it was some kind of moral failing that I couldn’t do maths as fast as the others.

In high school when we moved to algebra suddenly my marks got high (letters stay put) and i was put in the advanced class, and then when i couldnt repeat that performance with other areas of maths (remembering the way numbers are layed out in formulas is difficult when they dance around and you get confused between numbers linked in ur head) I was accused of being lazy, of being an attention seeker, of deliberately failing. 

No matter how many times i tried to explain that i just couldnt remember numbers, that they wiggled around in my head and connected themselves to unrelated colours and sounds, every one of my teachers just told me to ‘try harder, its not that hard’. Being singled out in class and questions fired at me with everyone watching to see me fail, having my teachers take my workbooks and read out to the class how terribly wrong i had gotten things so they could laugh. Parent teacher nights where they told my mum that i just wasnt trying, that i didn’t care, that I was failing on purpose.

You know I still have nightmares about being in maths class. you know i didn’t even know dyscalculia was a thing, that there was a ‘dyslexia for numbers’ until i was 25. I just thought I was stupid for needing to draw things so they got pinned down and started making sense.

i dont know where im going with this but i just wish someone had taken the time to listen and think ‘hey maybe this kid isnt making their school life a living hell for no reason, maybe somethings wrong’ or even ‘hey if drawing shit out and counting on fingers helps it make sense then go for it’ instead of using it as an opportunity to publicly mock me and make the entire concept of maths so stressful that i would have panic attacks about going to class.

[hernymills]

anyone else keep opening the calendar app when what they actually want is the calcator app

[adulting-with-autism]

I have permanent visual snow, tinnitus, synesthesia and dyscalcula. Could such neurological issues be connected to autism?

Possibly, but I’d suggest seeing someone about the visual snow and tinnitus.

[probablysecofed]

Talking about Learning Diabilities

Learning disabilities have been somewhat of a taboo topic in society and in education. In society, it is becoming less so but that change is not being reflected in our education system. This lack of education about situations of the people around us leads us all to ignorance towards them.

My friend’s family’s (true, not theoretical) story demonstrates exactly why this education is needed. My friend’s brother was diagnosed with ADHD a few years ago, but recently found out he is on the autism spectrum. She says that the lack of knowledge around ASD has contributed to a very difficult life for her brother and her family. Her brother faces bullying at school from kids who have no compassion to those different than them. People make fun of his stutter, his different emotions, and his family. Had these kinds of things been talked about in schools, these very kids would likely grow up to be more compassionate.

I just moved to Tennessee, and I hear all kinds of insensitive atrocities said about disabled and neuroatypical people by kids at this school. Ableist slurs are part of the vernacular here. Part of that is cultural and has to do with upbringing, but the other part is schools. Nobody ever talked about ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Dyslexia, etc. in schools. Even growing up for most of my school on the west coast, the most I learned about learning disabilities was from Rick Riordan’s books where most major characters had ADHD and Dyslexia. (Side note: the representation in these books in unprecedented compared to many other popular things, and representation for disabled people is very important). It’s just not part of anything that’s talked about in schools.

So what exactly would talking about learning disabilities in schools fix? There are two things: ignorance and lack of compassion, and teaching kids about themselves.

Ignorance leads to bigotry and hate. Humans have a natural aversion to those different than ourselves. This can easily be overcome with education and compassion, which should be introduced at a very early age. Knowing about these disabilities, how they manifest, what challenges they bring for people, and how they can be supportive towards people with disabilities would create a major shift in the general attitude towards learning disabilities.

Imagine someone going through their whole life not knowing why they have trouble reading. Imagine being too scared to raise the issue for fear of bullying. Imagine hearing someone say “dyslexia” at 17 years old, asking what that is, and having the problems of the last 17 years click into place. That is the reality for many people with learning disabilities. I knew I had ADHD since fourth grade and keeping that in mind helped me modify my study and organization habits to work with some of my difficulties. What if I hadn’t known until much later? People are told how to study and practice and learn under the assumption that they are an average neurotypical person. These methods don’t work for everyone, especially people with learning disabilities. These people are always given instructions for the majority and don’t understand why things aren’t working for them. If these disabilities were talked about in schools in a non-stigmatizing way, people would be more comfortable talking about their difficulties and find clarity earlier in their lives.

I can’t begin to think of a reason as to why this important and relevant topic isn’t discussed in schools, but it’s causing problems with lots of people growing up facing harassment for being different while simultaneously not knowing why they’re different.

[qbdatabase]

As an autistic scholarship student at a prestigious academy, Waverly is used to masking. So when the resident “it girl” asks her to attend the school’s annual Masquerade disguised as her, Waverly jumps at the chance. But the evening takes a sinister turn when Waverly stumbles into a secret meeting--and witnesses a brutal murder.

This Is the Way the World Ends by Jen Wilde: As an autistic scholarship student at a prestigious academy, Waverly is used to masking. So when the resident “it girl” asks her to attend the school’s annual Masquerade disguised as her, Waverly jumps at the chance. But the evening takes a sinister turn when Waverly stumbles into a secret meeting--and witnesses a brutal murder. ..... View the full summary and rep info on wordpress!