Published on 12, July, 2020
I have this preconceived idea that all Autistic people are really good at maths. I am terrible at mental arithmetic or any kind of working out in my head! Yet I can put together a mean spreadsheet, with formulas, forecasts, percentages whatever you like. But ask me what something times something is? Haven't a clue?
So I just wanted to see if that is odd for an Autistic person?
I was rubbish at everything at school - except reading and writing. I gave up on maths whilst still at primary school. Geometry, trig, algebra - they all passed me by. Nowadays, I know what pi is, and the stuff about the square of the hypotenuse... but that's as far as it goes.
Mental arithmetic, though, is something I'm good at. I can add up numbers and work out percentages pretty quickly - often to the surprise of others. I used to work in a shop where we gave 10% discount if people bought 3 of the same item. So someone would come to the till with 3 things priced at £3.89 each, and I'd ask them for £10.50... and they'd say 'Don't forget to take off my 10%', and would look at me aghast when I told them I already had! I just think '3 times £4, minus 33p equals £11.67. 10% of £11.67 is £1.17. Easy!' Mind you - 10% is a simple one to figure out.
My dad had a calculator brain. He didn't have much education, but he used to play darts and could work out scores in his head whilst the scorer was still thinking about it!
I suppose I ought to try boning up on some of this stuff, but I don't really have a logical brain that way. I'm good with using computers (though I've forgotten a lot of Excel), but I could never do something like coding. My niece's husband, on the other hand - an undiagnosed Aspie - ought to be earning a fortune in Silicon Valley. He just absorbs that stuff.
Do you literally think that sum through, or does it kind of slide through your head and you know the answer?
I just read it and my mind starts shutting down
I just read the question and the answer is there, it's like walking I don't think of how to do it it just happens. Totally opposite to my relationship with words, to write a word i have to spell it as I write one letter at a time. Dyslexia i hate it.
Me too, any more than three numbers and Complete mind fog.I kind of goninto a trance if allowed to, I just shut it down.
it could be due to dyslexia as my memory suffers badly. It has held me back as well as autism.
I struve to learn, analyse everything in minute detail only to have much of it vanish when needed! It literally turns me into an incoherent mess.