News article

Dyscalculia Day - March 3rd

A day to raise awareness of this lesser known learning difference that affects approximately 6% of the population. People with Dyscalculia might;

• Struggle with number sense (no feel for numbers and relative quantities).
• Find remembering and following directions hard.
• Struggle to learn how to read an analogue clock, and quickly tell their left from their right.
• Be anxious about Maths

Click here to listen to a young woman’s personal account of what it is like living with Dyscalculia.

Here are some strategies she finds useful to help in her daily life;

• Using a calculator, especially when there are multiple numbers that I need to add up.
• Asking people to write dates and times down for me, send me a meeting invite with this information (through outlook), or send reminder texts.
• Asking people to check that I have entered numbers correctly.
• Where possible, I navigate using landmarks. I also tend to take similar routes each time.
• I try to make sure that I have my phone on me, and charged. If I’m going somewhere unfamiliar I’ll use google maps to navigate.
• I tend to leave early, and allow extra time to get to places. In High School I hated the idea of being late. I also have a habit of setting my alarm clock 10-15 minutes earlier than the actual time so I have more time than I realise.
• Working with larger blocks of time where possible, and setting challenges for myself e.g. I’ll do as many tasks on my to do list as I can by 10am, regardless of how large or small they are.
• Self acceptance/self compassion – this is still a huge challenge for me, but something that I’m working on. Learning to see the funny side of some of the situations I’ve been in because of my Dyscalculia, like trying to make a meal only to realise partway through that I was missing the main ingredient and making something else instead.
• Food shopping – planning what to buy and how much it will cost before going food shopping (and being okay with going a little over what I had expected to pay).
• If I have to work something out on paper (adding or subtracting) formatting it the following way is really helpful.

Helpful Resources;

• How to ADHD Home - How To ADHD has some excellent videos around time management and organisation.
• Habitica – Habitica - Gamify Your Life this is a free site which is part ‘To do list’ or habit tracker, and part RPG game. It’s definitely worth a try, and there are even fun challenges you can do.
• Outlook – using the calendar to add important information, times, etc. and colour coding the information so I can see at a glance if something is a reminder, meeting, task to complete etc.
• Khan Academy – Khan Academy | Free Online Courses, Lessons & Practice this is a really great resource, and maths concepts are explained really well.

Added by Learning Differences Aotearoa Trust 3 March 2023.

www.learningdifferences.org.nz

Posted: 2 March 2023