I keep forgetting that NT people don’t do math the same way people with ADHD do it until I try to explain my thought process and get weird looks from people who are like “how the FUCK did you do that?”
whoops
and for those of you who DON’T know what I’m talking about I’ll give you an example
42 + 29 = 71
for neurotypical people, they use the method we were all taught in grade school where you add 9 + 2 to get 11 and then move the extra one over to make 4 + 2 + 1 which equals 7 to give you 71
but the way I do it (as many other people with ADHD as I’ve come to find out) is this:
okay so you have 42 + 29. if you take 1 away from 42 and give it to 29 to make it an even 30, you now have 41 + 30 which is an easy 71
or, another problem: 53 + 88
round that 88 up to 90 and take the two from 53 so you have 51 + 90. but wait I can make this easier. take 10 more from 51 to make 90, 100 and now you have 41 + 100 which equals 141
it’s just…so much faster? and makes so much more sense to me
also? the math teachers that always took off points for kids not showing their work?
fucking HATED that. as someone who could get from point A to point D in my head in a split second, I felt like showing my work was often a waste of time when sometimes it felt like I just automatically knew the answer
or, if I did put down my work, I went through a process that wasn’t taught and would get points reduced anyway because it wasn’t the way we were taught just because my brain worked differently than the rest of the class. my answer was always right. they just didn’t like how I got it
never did like that much
also, this is another way of doing it that I just saw on facebook that I’ve also done before
because I do things to that extent too
so if you give me something like 37 + 45 I’ll go “well 30 + 40 is 70 and 7 + 5 is 12 so 70 + 12 is 82″
there’s just…so many ways to do math that make more sense than the way I was taught
this post got a lot more popular than I was expecting wow
I’ve seen some people reblogging this saying they don’t have adhd but have autism and yes! People with autism do this too! I’ve learned that a lot of people with adhd and/or autism do things that overlap and this is one of them!
i’m sorry but these are the only valid tags on this post
The other day I was timing some food. I put it into the oven at 6:27 and it had to cook for half an hour. Instead of 6:27 + 30 minutes = 6:57, my brain went “it’s 3 minutes before 6:30, so add half an hour, take it out 3 minutes before 7. Which is 6:57.”
Hello I’m in this picture and don’t like it
Yes! I have done all these ways. My brother mentioned doing math this way over the weekend while we were with family. Every single person in my family could relate & thought this made complete sense. I am the only one *diagnosed* with adhd in my family, but... I’m like 98% sure both my siblings AND both my parents have it, albeit with vastly different presentations.
