Pushing through and burning out
From passing the test to facing the cliff: a dyscalculic reality.
When we talk about dyscalculia and access to education, we need to be honest about something that is too often avoided, or sugar-coated. For some dyscalculic individuals, certain educational goals may be, quite literally, humanly unreachable. Not because they lack motivation or intelligence, but because the cognitive demands required (especially in numerically intensive fields) clash directly with the nature of their brain wiring.
This is a difficult truth to voice in a culture where the dominant narrative around learning disabilities centers around “you can do anything, just with the right support.” While this may often hold true for dyslexia, where extended time and assistive technology can make most reading- and writing-based paths accessible, dyscalculia presents a different kind of barrier. Here the cognitive process required may not be transferable or workaround-able in the same way.
The consequences of dyscalculia are not limited to obvious “math-heavy” fields like engineering or economics. It can show up subtly but impactfully also in fields like nursing, social work, education, logistics, and to some extent also in arts and humanities – Whenever tasks require consistent numerical processing, time estimation, budgeting, scheduling, data management, or precision in sequences. So there are dyscalculic individuals who push themselves to pass the academic hurdles: medication dose tests, math exams, finance modules, only to find that the actual demands of working life are unbearable or unmanageable.
This is about a misfit between a neurotype, and an environment that refuses to accommodate it meaningfully. Educational institutions very often celebrate persistence ("you passed! You can do it!") without fully understanding what lies ahead. They systemically fail to provide tailored, dyscalculia-aware career counseling that would allow people to plan futures with sustainability and dignity in mind.
If we truly want to move toward inclusion, we must do more than help students push through. We must offer:
early recognition of dyscalculia, ideally before educational specialization begins;
realistic mapping of work-field expectations in relation to dyscalculia;
and career support that addresses dyscalculia specifically, its limits, but also its strengths.
Without these, we risk pushing dyscalculic individuals into burnout, underemployment, or quiet dropout. Not for lack of will, but because no one helped them read the map.
xxxSasu
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Thanks for sharing another wonderfully informative article! Sounds like as with a lot of neurodivergences, dyscalculia can affect many mental processes, like time estimation, that seemingly occur without conscious effort for neurotypicals.
I wonder to what extent, this factor makes it difficult for institutions to understand and thus develop effective accomodations for. It's easier, I think for neurotypicals to understand why it would be difficult for someone with a particular learning disability to learn mathmatics because everyone can reflect back to a time where we found a math class or other academic subject matter difficult to comprehend. But it's probably more difficult for someone to understand difficulty with consistent time budgeting, unless they themselves have had similar struggles. This is where I think neurodivergent people can play a critical role in educating the general public about.
I’ve also been frustrated with the (admittedly well-intended) concept that people with disabilities “can do anything.” We can’t. That’s part of what the disability is. The way to help us is to help even the playing field, not encourage us to overcome something we literally can’t.