The Girl who Forgot how to Read.
Recently I was chatting with a lovely young adult, who as well as having a severe form of dyspraxia/DCD (Developmental Coordination Disorder) also has severe dyscalculia.
Dyscalculia = is a difficulty in the learning or comprehension of arithmetic, such as difficulty understanding and manipulating numbers, and learning mathematics.
People usually think of challenges with maths in terms of learning in the classroom; however, if an individual has dyscalculia the ramifications of this extend across many other areas which are significant for daily living. These include money and budgeting, time keeping and organisation, understanding weight and measurement. This can have a profound influence on job opportunity and retention.
The chat with this delightful individual exposed the fact that she experiences a sense of profound panic when it comes to dealing with money because numbers have no meaning for her.
She has recently moved out of home into a wonderful supported environment where the staff are trying to help her towards greater independence and a degree of independent financial decision making. Dyscalculia is one difficulty amongst a complex profile of specific learning difficulties, which as a bundle makes daily living very challenging indeed for this person.
It had been agreed that to make things as easy as possible whilst she gets used to all the change she is encountering that staff would work out with her what monies she would need to see her through the week, to pay for various activities and refreshments. To ease things further she agreed to her monies being given to her each day so she had only to consider one day at a time.
However it came to the attention of her key worker that she was secreting money away to collect it up so that she always had a bundle of money on her person 'just incase'.
Further conversation exposed the fact that when she bought her lunch, the numbers on the menu were meaningless. She was unable to calculate if £4.95 was less than the £8 she had to spend, she felt a sense of terrible panic. She was terrified that she would not be able to pay for what she had ordered. She thought that she would look utterly stupid and people would not understand that she was unable to interpret numerical information.
So what has this got to do with forgetting how to read?
I was reminded of a story of a child who went overseas on holiday with her family. When she arrived at her destination she exclaimed 'Mummy I have forgotten how to read!!!'. What she didn't know was that all the signage etc was in fact in another language and she simply couldn't read it because she didn't understand that language.
I figure that this is how it must be for the young woman and her money issues, like landing in a foreign country every time she looks at a menu, or a price tag.
It seems to me that this must be very anxiety provoking, and this young person's need to have a wad of money about her was a way of always knowing that she could pay for whatever she had ordered. However, it also left her vulnerable as she carried around a significant (and often unknown amount) of cash, 'just in case'.
These invisible issues are the kind of experiences people around us are living with all the time. Whether they have acquired a diagnosis is immaterial, the difficulties still exist.
Definitions and research into dyscalculia are in their infancy, but the prevalence of the condition suggests that it affects between 3-6% of the UK population. That is 1 in every 20 children. One in every classroom. A significant number of people.
In many people it co exists alongside other conditions as it did with the young woman whose experience I am describing. She is dealing with this anxiety alongside the anxiety that her experiences with dyspraxia also creates.
As a society we are very poor at recognising and understanding invisible difficulties, and yet they render very able, creative, tenacious people at a huge disadvantage in our classrooms and workplaces. It begs the question of how many people who are very capable in many ways do not get the success they deserve, or meet their own potential. We are very good at catching people being bad, and often focus on their weaknesses, rather than their strengths.
If you see someone who seems to be struggling, ask if you can assist them. It just takes a little thought and kindness to get someone else out of a difficult spot.
Ref
C. Lewis, G. J. Hitch, and P. Walker, "The prevalence of specific arithmetic difficulties and specific reading difficulties in 9- to 10-year old boys and girls," Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, vol. 35, pp. 283-292, 1994.
