College Grad with Dyscalculia & Spelling Difficulty

VISITOR: I'm not sure where to begin when asking for help.  
I have struggled my whole life with math and spelling and just do not understand it.  I am raising a family and experiencing my struggles all over again as I try to help my 11 year old daughter with her math and spelling challenges.  One method that helps my daughter to learn math is the Touch Math method.  As for spelling, her teacher just encourages my daughter to keep reviewing.  She has Sensory Processing Disorder, so tapping and touching objects helps her to process math and spelling that seems to float on her page.  I guess I am just hoping that someday the light bulb will come on in my mind to say "Yes that's how you are supposed to complete the math problem!"  I would also like to be able to spell words correctly the first time and not always rely on spell check or the dictionary.  When working on math, I always try my best to complete a math problem.  However, that is just what it becomes, a problem that I do not seem to remember the basic steps in order to complete.  I have been evaluated by a disabilities organization in my state. Their findings were that I have a math disability. They believe that I should continue the coping methods I have been using all my life since it has allowed me to complete a BFA Degree.  The only down side is I basically failed all my math and science courses in college.  

My challenge obtaining my BFA was to hide the fact that to this day I still do not understand how to use a ruler to measure.  Somehow I can create wonderful art pieces.  I hope this may help you understand my struggles.  I also hope that you may be able to guide me in the right direction to better understanding math.

DYSCALCULIA.ORG: Thank you for sharing your story. It sounds like you have dyslexia and dyscalculia. For dyslexia, I recommend the Orton-Gillingham method. If this is not successful, try the Davis Method. You may also want to explore Dr. Harold Levinson's treatment. As for spelling, here is a nice one-pager explaining why spelling is difficult for all but those with a very good visual memory for printed words. For math, I recommend our Best Math Tools. Here are some books about Math Dyslexia. Here are great tools for Dyscalculia Remediation. Feel free to contact us again.