Difficulties with symbols?
Symbols play a big role in our lives. Letters, traffic-signs, punctuation marks, they're everywhere!
All symbols have meaning, and it has to be learned. Failure to do so can affect our ability to understand everything that's based on them - including math!
Math is full of symbols, plus sign (+), equal sign (=) etc.
Dyslexics and Dyscalculics have difficulties learning symbols, and there is a simple reason for it.
This group of students (15% of the whole) has vivid imagination. That means that they think mainly in pictures, they "see" things in their minds.
This is the reason this group excels when doing visual work (3D). But school is designed for 2D thinkers (word thinkers). Symbols are in 2D.
When you look at a 3 dimensional picture (like a car), it's meaning can be "seen", you're looking at it.
When you look at a 2D picture (like a math symbol), it's meaning can NOT be seen, you must learn it.
We divide words and concepts into two categories, either it's meaning can be seen or it can not.
We tend to forget pictureless (2D) information rather quickly, like phone numbers, names etc. It's even more difficult to remember a seqence of pictureless information, like a series of names or numbers.
This is the reason why a dyscalculic or dyslexic student struggles learning the names of the days, months, or anything else that includes pictureless information.
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