Dyscalculia Checklist for Teens
Being a teenager can be really frustrating at the best of times, but add on problems with Maths, timekeeping and other issues, and life becomes unbearable and embarrassing. Does a day in Fred’s life sound anything like yours?
Morning - starts badly.
Alarm goes off. Fred opens his eyes and peers at the clock. “Good I’ve got ages before school. I’ll lie in for another few moments.” 30 mins later, Fred is still in bed having lost track of time. “Fred get in the shower. Hurry up.” yells his mum. He swears he’s only been in the shower for 2 mins when his mum bangs on the door “Fred you’ve been in there for 25 mins, you’re late for school, AGAIN.”
Dyscalculia issue: Bad timekeeping and struggles with how long it takes to complete a task.
First Lesson - Things aren’t going to plan
Fred likes geography but time pressure in the test is making him panic even though he’s studied really hard.
“Why are there so many graphs nothing's making sense!” He then looks at the analogue clock and freaks himself out “Oh bollocks I’ve only got 5 minutes to go and 10 questions to answer. Oh shit, I’ve read the clock wrong, it’s ok, I’ve still got 20 mins left. Actually, I’ve no idea what the time is!!! I can’t think straight!!!!”
Dyscalculia issue: Telling the Time. Graphs and charts are hard to interpret. Can often see the bigger picture but miss smaller details.
Lunchtime: Embarrassing moment #365...
Fred fancies Elly. It’s her birthday and Fred promises to buy her a cake. Fred’s in line to buy his lunch and Elly’s cake, he’s looking cool on the outside but on the inside... “Oh bollocks… I can’t work out if I have enough money to buy two things, I can’t put my lunch back or they’ll laugh at me. Oh no, I’m next in line....” Fred gets to the cashier he doesn’t have enough money, Elly and her friends laugh at him and strop off.
Dyscalculia issue: Budgeting and recalling basic maths facts
Afternoon: The nightmare continues…
Fred has moved up a maths set as he was doing really well but the new maths teacher doesn’t explain things in a way he understands. “God this is all wrong. I’m so stupid.” He spills water on his work so that the teacher can’t mark it and see how badly he’s doing. Last week he hid his homework at the bottom of the wrong pile so the teacher couldn’t find it.
Dyscalculia issue: Math anxiety and avoiding tasks.
After School: Basketball practice, things should be looking up….
Fred loves basketball and is really good at it but he can never remember the set plays. “Fred what the hell are you doing over there? We have been over this a hundred times, after the 5th move you’re meant to be in the right-hand corner at the back, NOT the left front.”
Dyscalculia issue: Gauging speed, distance, left from right and remembering a sequence of instructions.
Dinner Time: Surely things have got to be better at home.
Fred promised to make his mum dinner to make up for being late to school but things don’t go to plan. There’s mess everywhere, he’s doesn’t have half the ingredients. “I’ve looked at the stupid recipe a million times but keep measuring everything wrong, I hate this.” Fred’s strops off hungry and tried and his mum’s in a grumpy because she’s left to tidy up again.
Dyscalculia issue : Planning problems, following written instructions, measuring.
Dyscalculia can affect all areas of life and knock the confidence out of so many teenagers who believe they are stupid even though they can be very smart and highly creative.
If our children don’t understand or practise the basics they will suffer enormously later in life.
However, if they exercise the math area of their brain, teenagers like Fred can flourish in maths and conquer maths anxiety. Try sites like FABLES WORLD which makes learning math foundations easy.