Mark’s story of achievement from a diagnosis of dyscalculia and lack of support in school to becoming an advocate for adult education.
“This is a film about my journey in education. It connects my past to my present, from primary school to secondary school to third level and all the challenges I faced in the Irish education system without educational support and the difficulties of finding a job. My unhappiness at home and how I returned to education as an adult and became an ambassador for lifelong learning.”
If you are not online, you can forget about keeping in touch with your grandchildren. That is just the reality we are living in. However, for seniors living with dyscalculia or dyslexia, using the internet can be incredibly stressful and even dangerous. To help you with this necessary form of communication, we have put together a comprehensive guide to make the experience less stressful and more fun.
How Dyscalculia and Dyslexia Affects People Later in Life
Most of the media attention on dyscalculia and dyslexia is focused on how these maladies affect youngsters. Yet, older adults also have trouble living a normal life and performing specific activities when they are afflicted by these disabilities. In turn, this can cause undue frustration and stress.
Seniors who acquire dyslexia and dyscalculia later in life often do so through trauma, dementia, stroke, or brain injury. For dementia and stroke, stress is typically a contributing factor. When stress is the source of dyslexia or dyscalculia, a dangerous cycle develops.
As dyscalculics and dyslexics put in extra effort to deal with numbers, math, and reading, they get frustrated and mentally-exhausted. This added stress can lead to other health issues or worsen the condition. Unfortunately, trying to use the internet is one of the more stressful experiences for seniors, especially with all of the scammers out there trying to prey on your inexperience. Thankfully, there are some steps you can take to stay safe on the internet and avoid the added stress.
A few weeks back we were asked through Dyscalculia Blog about online support groups for adults with dyscalculia. I found a great group on Facebook that could possibly help, but this was not its main focus. So we decided to set up our own Facebook group, where we can support each other, ask questions, post helpful resources and talk about all things dyscalculia whether it is about your child or yourself!
Dyscalculia can affect anyone and this is a great starting point as a lot of people are discovering that they have dyscalculia late in life and they realise all the struggles it caused them. They are unsure how to tackle these difficulties and it can be hard to find useful information, but now we can help each other using this Dyscalculia Support Group as a tool.
We have dipped into the blog archives to find our content on dyscalculia that has proved most useful to our readers. We’d like to share these articles here as the ones that, going by popularity and response in the comments, resonate the most with our audience. Thank you for reading!
Our top post is a guest post from educator Sarah Jarvis and she covers a topic on which it can be difficult to find in-depth information: adult math learning difficulties. The post lists reasons why adults may be struggling with maths such as poor schooling, maths anxiety and visual stress difficulties, how dyscalculia could remain undiagnosed in many adults and what you can do to help yourself or someone with dyscalculia/maths difficulties.
In at number two: The Famous, The Successful, The Inspiring. Well-known dyscalculics, leading us to think that there is a need for spotlighting dyscalculic role models. Singer Cher and actress Mary Tyler Moore make the list of famous people with dyscalculia.
There is plenty of information on famous dyslexics available but much less on dyscalculics. We try to share examples of success achieved by dyscalculics and update this page regularly. Read more.
This post looks more deeply into the struggles dyscalculics face. A special focus is given to those difficulties caused when a child is dyscalculic but the condition goes unrecognised or misunderstood at home and school. This can lead to deep feelings of anxiety and a lack of confidence in a dyscalculic child. Hopefully, as dyscalculia becomes better understood, support and intervention will also increase. Read more.
The founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad, is known to have suffered from dyscalculia. The traditional numeral product codes used in most businesses seemed like an unending nightmare to him. To avoid the challenging typing of numbers in the computer system, he decided to name his products using names! This example shows that dyscalculia does not have to automatically be a hindrance and that the experience of having a learning difference can also shape innovative approaches to common situations and lead to extraordinary careers. Read more here.
While some dyscalculics receive the support and intervention they need from their teachers and therapists, others struggle with their schools’ lack of resources or awareness. In the latter case, parents of dyscalculic children may consider homeschooling if this is a legal option where they live. This post covers it all read more.
This week’s guest post from educator Sarah Jarvis covers a topic on which it can be difficult to find in-depth information: adult math learning differences. We are very pleased to feature Jarvis’s informative article on the Dyscalculia Blog!
I have worked at Bracknell and Wokingham College in the Learning Support Department for 8 years, supporting those aged over 16 who have maths learning differences. I also taught GCSE and Functional Skills adult maths classes for a number of years.
The reasons that learners leave school at 16 or older without the requisite ‘C’ grade in maths can be numerous. It is only by understanding the roots of what makes them struggle, as well as the person’s strengths, that it is possible to assist them to overcome these challenges. Assessment is, therefore, an extremely important part of my job.
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