I have been looking for the cite all morning but haven’t been able to find it. I read fairly recently that most adults who were abused as children have a lot of difficulty with math.
The article I read claimed that it is common for children who are being abused or molested, to focus on something in the room or in their mind by counting until the abuse ended (holes in ceiling tile, carpet strands, etc., or just counting 1, 2, 3, 4. . . . ). They grow up associating numbers and math with pain, therefore, have bad math skills.
The article I read was the first time I had ever heard this. Does anyone know if there is any truth to this claim?
A difference with spelling skills, though, is that I don’t think most Dopers would complain if someone had to use a dictionary to correct spelling mistakes. I’d equate using a dictionary to proofread a post with using a calculator for basic arithmetic.
Is it ok for a bad speller to rely on a dictionary, but not ok for a bad adder/multiplier to use a calculator??
LOL!! I’ll have to use that sometime. I’m pretty good at estimating in my head, but have a terrible accuracy rate with actual numbers. I’ll use a calculator to compute 7x8+13 because there’s a 5% chance I’ll screw it up in my head, but maybe a 0.5% chance I’ll screw it up on a calculator. Also, the effort to work it out in my head can interrupt my original train of thought, greatly slowing me down. With a calculator, the computations don’t compete with the underlying problem for valuable brain bandwidth
BTW, I have a friend who can (and routinely does) compute square roots and trig functions to two decimal places in 2-4 seconds, in his head. HE still uses a calculator whenever possible, for the same reasons I do.
