(NEXSTAR) – Larry Mullen Jr., the drummer for U2, has revealed he was diagnosed with a condition known as dyscalculia, which affects his ability to deal with numbers and math.
“I’ve always known that there’s something not particularly right with the way that I deal with numbers,” he told Times Radio, a radio service operated by the U.K. outlets The Times and The Sunday Times. “I’m numerically challenged.”
Mullen, 63, further revealed that he was only recently diagnosed with dyscalculia, which explains his difficulty in adding and counting — both being skills that he utilizes while playing with the band.
“When people watch me play sometimes, they say, ‘You look pained.’ I am pained because I’m trying to count the bars,” he told Times Radio. “I had to find ways of doing this — and counting bars is like climbing Everest.”
Dyscalculia — sometimes referred to as “mathematics learning disability” or, less accurately, “math dyslexia” — affects the area of the human brain that is related to math. Dyscalculia often co-occurs with people who have dyslexia, but the two are different, distinct learning disabilities, according to the peer-reviewed NeuroImage: Clinical medical journal.
Dyscalculia also isn’t the same in everyone. Some children with dyscalculia have difficulty with working memory and can’t do multi-stem math problems. Others can’t understand charts or other mathematical graphics.
The brains of people with Dyscalculia work a little different than the brains of those who do not have dyscalculia, but there are age-related symptoms that can help identify those who have the condition. Children in elementary school who have dyscalculia may have difficultly with the concept of bigger vs. smaller; rely on counting on their fingers (or have trouble when not doing so); or have difficultly recognizing mathematical calculations (such as multiplication problems if the order of the numbers change), among other issues.
By the time a student reaches secondary or high school, they may have difficulty counting backward, solving word problems, measuring items or quantities, using money, making change, understanding fractions, or breaking complex problems down into multiple steps to make them easier to solve them.
Dyscalculia can cause, or be accompanied by, a host of other issues, researchers have noted. Conditions that are frequently paired with dyscalculia are attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, dysgraphia, or non-verbal learning disorders, autism spectrum disorders, and sensory-processing disorders. Between 20% and 60% of those with dyscalculia also have dyslexia or ADD, according to an estimate published in the German medical publication Deutsches Ärzteblatt.
Many youth who have dyscalculia also have associated cognitive dysfunction that impairs their working memory and visuospatial skills, the publication reported.
Adults, meanwhile, may have dyscalculia and not even know it, and experts believe the disability affects between three and seven percent of all humans, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Those who believe they may have dyscalculia, or their children may be affected by it, are urged to seek treatments — which may include learning programs or technological tools to mitigate the effects of dyscalculia — to limit the impacts of the disability.
Mullen, in his Times Radio appearance, also discussed his work on the documentary “Left Behind,” which tells the true story of a group of mothers in NYC who worked to establish the city’s first public school for dyslexic children. The famed drummer, whose son is dyslexic, produced and composed music for the doc.
“Making the music through the eyes of my dyslexic son felt personal and visceral,” Mullen told Times Radio.
