Dyslexic with Numbers but not Words?

Factual Questions
21

Hmm, that is weird. The typo thing seems more likely (IMHO) to happen in, say, a table of percentages or general amounts, where you might not notice the difference between 78% and 87%, or between 146,327 and 146,237. But in the example you gave, one would expect that your brain should stop and remind you that you’re talking about (say) the year a movie came out, so 1496 wouldn’t make much sense.

Maybe you can try forcing your brain to concentrate on sense, when it’s possible? With zip codes and phone numbers it might not help so much right away, but maybe you can jump-start the gray matter into treating numbers more carefully.

On the other hand, taking time to write numbers carefully, especially if you’re aware it’s an issue for you, isn’t such a bad thing either. It’s generally considered good practice for anyone to repeat back a phone number that’s been read to them, for example.

And don’t beat yourself up up too much over it!

22

That’s exactly the kind of thing I do. And I have no problems with math otherwise. In fact I enjoy mathematical games and I often “doodle” by figuring out statistics.

23

I never was able to memorize the multiplication tables, and I realy tried. I can’t do even simple math in my head. I need a cacuator to do any kind of math. And I work in accounting.
I transpose numbers so much that I’ve become a whiz at finding them. I also think my spelling problems are due to dyslexica, but no one else thinks so.
I can do complecated math problems with a caculator. I understand the concepts, Its the math I can’t do well.
I found four transpositions in this post on review.

Spelling and grammer subject to change without notice.

24

Oh, I’m used to it by now, just vaguely curious if anyone else has that same problem. (Seems to be pretty much just me and Little Nemo, I guess)

And my gray matter is way too gray to start retraining it now!

25

Eve, you’re a writer, right? (and a proofreader, yes?) I am also a writer and have the exact same problem. Not sure how much it’s a letters vs. word thing, or a left vs. right brain thing but I do understand.

I have always had a problem with left and right directions but am getting better as I pay more specific attention to them.

One of my friends from high school is what one would consider a genius, he was an English major and he can’t tell left from right (I’ve never quizzed him on phone numbers…)

Although I have been playing music for over 15 years, I still can’t actually READ music very well. I can say “that dot on that line means this position on the horn” but beyond that I can’t sit down and read a piece by note. I also cannot conceptualize chords or grasp music theory very well.

My best friend, on the other hand, was a math major in college and he has a serious problem speaking correctly and expressing himself through words. He is great at reading music (chords, transposing, etc) but it takes him about 4 times as long to read the same book as me. But he knows teh calculus :slight_smile:

I’ve always theorized that at some point my brain just gave up on math and numbers and latched on to the alphabet instead. My best friend’s brain just did the reverse. I can handle being a musician because even though at the core it’s all about math, I can grasp it through expression.

You’re not alone! :slight_smile:

26

It seems like the number of categorizable brain quirks could be endless. I kind of think we’re only now starting to get an idea of just how many ways individual brains can differ from the “norm.”

I sometimes transpose numbers, but there doesn’t seem to be any pattern to it. I suspect that it’s more of a single mistake, than a processing problem.

But, I am mildly dyslexic. (I mix up b/d/p/q and others depending on the font.) And at 32, after going through a whole battery of tests for ADHD, it was discovered that I have some sort of non-specified math learning disability. My analytical, verbal and memory skills are fine, but my math skills are very much less developed. I always knew that, but it was interesting to have it confirmed. I was told that if I was still in school, I would’ve been encouraged to take special math classes to help me learn how to get past the problems.

Those problems are kind of hard to describe and they sort of fit in with the dyscalculia info. I can’t count change unless I touch every piece, and I have to sort it as I count. I couldn’t read a map until my late 20s. I couldn’t tell N, E, W or S until my 30s. I find it hard to work with even small, simple numbers without a calculator. Balancing my checkbook is a majory deal for me. Most of the time I don’t know how much money I have. If I don’t use a calculator, I have to still make marks to carry the one or change 0 to 9 when subtracting. I had to work for weeks to memorize the multiplication tables - my parents quizzed me nightly and it was a horrible experience for us all. Checking my work never helped; if 2+2=5 the first time, it did so the second & third times, too. I was pretty much in hell mathwise until my senior year of high school. It was at that point that math started getting more theorhetical, and then it finally made sense. I actually enjoyed analytical geometry.

But, unlike the dyscalculia profile, I can do fractions and percentages just fine, although they were hard to learn at first. I played the flute for years, so no musical problems. And I can plan, although that’s harder.

I’ve got a few other brain processing quirks. I have a horrible time with foreign languages. I took three years of Latin and had to look at the declension chart or the verb conjugation chart and the dictionary for just about every freaking word, no matter how many times I’d translated it before. Spanish was almost as bad, and Old English was pretty awful, too. This stuff sounds like a memory problem, but it’s not. I routinely memorized hundreds of facts for art history tests in a single night with no problem, and surprising amounts of retention. But languages…no way.

I’m also unable to spell certain words when others recite them to me. Comisky is a good example. It I didn’t know that it’s spelled with a C and you told me you were going to Comisky Park to watch a game, I’d hear it as Komisky. I’d write it down as Komisky, even if you spelled it out properly for me. But, if you’d just show it to me, no problem. I have this problem with j and g, too. I’m a reference librarian, and I have people spelling things to me constantly. I often have to ask them to print that stuff out, or ask them to look on the screen and see if I’ve spelled their search correctly.

And, when I’m reshelving books (which I don’t do very often, thank goodness) I have to recite the whole alphabet to get things in the right order. Sometimes I’m lucky and can just go L or something, but most of the time I have to go from the beginning of the alphabet and work my way to the section I’m working on.

Oh, and I have to think at stop lights: green is go. For some reason my natural tendancy to thinkg red means go. I got over that one really quickly.

I doubt there’s one word that describes all of that stuff. And really, that’s fine. Most of it is stuff I’ve learned to deal with over the years. I know how to work around my brain. But there’s no doubt in my mind that there are some processing problems going on.

27

My little brother was diagnosed years ago with what the psychologists referred to as a “sequential learning disorder”.

He cannot add numbers on paper–his brain transposes the numbers. Same with dialing numbers on the phone–he always makes sure someone else enters the number into speed dial for him.

However, ask him verbally and he can compute the answer with no problem.

28

I have almost no memory for numbers. The numbers I’ve managed to memorize are limited to:
my social security number
my zip code & about 5 other zip codes
my phone number
my work phone number
my debit card number
my password at work
my assistant’s password at work
the four-digit number for contracts (but just one at a time, I immediately forget when we’re through) at work that I need to write down several times a week.

That’s it. I don’t know my license plate number, my license number or my bank account number or friends’ phone numbers off the top of my head…

Numbers usually don’t stick in my head, not even for a few seconds. Even using a calculator I write down the numbers wrong, so often I stopped bothering to total amounts for bank slips since 10-20% of the time the teller asks " Did you mean to write…?"

I think it’s the abstractness. I had no problem memorizing dates for my history class, as long as I memorized them as part of a sentence. Like " The Titanic sank on April 14th, 1912" instead of “4-14-1912.”

29

Yes, I think I might be with Eve and Little Nemo on this one, from what I can make out.

Say, if someone is going to give me a phone number and I say, “Sure, I’ve got a pen and paper, go ahead”, and they go ahead.

I hear the first couple of numbers but my brain just can’t seem to transmit them to my writing hand, and then the person is now three or four digits in with the number. My brain and hand are then muddled as whether to catch up with the missed numbers or to try and put down, oh what. Where am I now!?

I always have to ask at least twice and I get that little squincy knot of frustration in my throat, even though it’s no big deal to the other person, probably.

It’s like my brain is going, “Five. Write down ‘five’”.

And the brain bit that talks to my hand is going, ‘uh?’

That’s the best I can explain it.

30

I’ve never hard a problem with language dyslexia. But half the time I try to fill out a bank deposit slip, I’ve done the arithmetic wrong. High math concepts I didn’t have a problem with, just the lowest forms of number crunching!

31

Yep, that’s exactly what happens to me, it’s v. shy-making and frustrating. I always have to go, "whoa, whoa, hold up! “Two . . . One . . . Two . . .”