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#ableist

Hate and discrimination against the disabled

danegraphics #ableist reddit.com

Yes, learning disabilities exist, but “dyscalculia”, a disability that somehow specializes in mathematics, a non-biological non-social construct of the modern age, is a nonsensical concept.

Sure, students can have adhd, or aphantasia, or dyslexia, or some other disability, or combination of disabilities, that makes it difficult to learn math on top of the other effects those disabilities have. But there is no such thing as a disability that affects mathematics only and nothing else.

Any student can learn, even with learning disabilities. It’s just a matter of find a way to work with or around the disability. Saying “oh, you have a disability that makes it impossible for you to be good at math” is one of the worst things anyone could ever tell a child.

I’m not going to validate a lie that can only hinder a child’s ability to learn and grow.

danegraphics #ableist reddit.com

It is different from dyslexia in that dyslexia actually has a specific effect that can be measured.

The same cannot be said for dyscalculia, where the diagnosis is basically “Oh, looks like you struggle with math and numbers. Must be dyscalculia.”

“Dyscalculia” is almost always the result of one or more other learning disabilities, whether a memory problem, a reasoning problem, a perception problem, or otherwise. You’ll never find dyscalculia without finding at least one other learning disability that causes dyscalculia.

So sure, if dyscalculia is just a label for a specific result of other disabilities, then yeah, it exists. But dyscalculia itself isn’t a specific disability with a specific measurable effect.

But in the end, regardless of the existence of dyscalculia, if there is one thing that needs to be stopped more than anything else, it’s the self-diagnosis by math students who struggle with math for one reason or another (usually the teacher’s or curriculum’s fault). And when they get that diagnosis, they give up on math, or stop trying as hard.

Again, I’m not going to validate an excuse for bad teaching practices and the discouragement of learning.