Published on 12, July, 2020
I've not been diagnosed with it or anything but I know I have it. I am and always have been TERRIBLE when it comes to maths. I never managed to learn the times tables apart from 1, 2, 5, 9 and 10.
I am always having to do additions on my hands, even simple things like 7+5.. I really struggle and have it count it out in my head and use my fingers. For bigger sums I have to use a piece of paper and really think about it or I wont be able to do it. I often use my calculator on my phone to do sums. Especially when shopping on a budget. I'll select my item and add it on my calculator to make sure I'm not going over my spending limit.
It also takes me a very long time to tell the time on an analogue clock. I'll have to sit there and count up to where the hand is. Similarly on a digital clock it has to be on the 12h setting. I get confused otherwise looking at like 17:36 and having to figure out what 17 is.
Honestly it can be really embarrassing when I can't do simple maths.
I have one of the other ones, dysgraphia which I find equally embarrassing. My writing is awful and I really struggle with spelling.
Through my early school life I was deemed as "slow" as I was so reluctant to put pen to paper.
I sympathise
That's so interesting, I never knew this had a name but I feel like my partner (who is also autistic) struggles with this!
I'm sorry you were deemed as "slow", school can be so dehumanising to us neurodivergent folk.
The only upside was that I got to miss sport/gym classes for extra tuition instead I'm thankful that technology is a saving grace with spelling and grammar checks as standard.
I still try to avoid writing and if I have to I write in capitals.
Grand isn't it.