I have dyscalculia - after years and years of thinking i was stupid (and being called stupid ) it turns out there is such a thing and its not my stupidity but like dyslexia only with numbers.
I,m glad it has been recognised for the sake of youngsters now because it put a real blight on my school years - back in the days of comprehensives and streaming the stream selections were based on maths ability - so i was in the D stream (D for dunce) - which meant all the other subjects were at a D stream level too, science - we didnt do anything above very basic level science - no exams, no splitting off to physiscs chemistry etc - English - fair enough i was top but could have, and later did, get much more because i am quite good at that at least - but D stream werent allowed to do O levels.
Its never too late though i have learned a lot since then particulary with science, thanks Brian Cox and David Attenborugh,ecology and biology - thanks to futurelearn courses on environment.
Maths is still a bit of a blank though it is a real struggle - i dont know my own phone number, i cant read numbers that are over four places unless there is a comma - 12345 - to me reads one two three four five in single digits 12,345 reads twelve thousand 3 hundred and foty five etc.
Discovery about the condition came about when i was in dispatch at work - i couldnt put credit card numbers to the machine once they stopped leaving the gaps between them, the numbers just jumble up, and i had to break them down, moving a piece of paper over the top as i put each one of them in worked - but i was thinking it was my eye sight and the optition recognised what the problem was.
I am suposed to be doing GCSE maths next year - (i told my grandson i would do it the same time as him - just to try and encourage him to do his homework
) so i am going to try and do something about it - not because i need too just because i,m stubborn.
But the best moment with going back to basic science , as i am surrounded by ex oxford and cambridge computer boffins at work, who think i,m generally a graphics design arty type of a completely different species too them , was when i discovered i was the only one who understood quantum physics (ok not to a high degree - no-one does yet) - but the basics.- some times going back and getting a bit of knowledge can be be priceless.