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Miami Palmetto High School rising junior Victoria Enriquez has written a picture book called My Math Mess to spread awareness about a learning disability she has that few people know about.
“My goal is to spread awareness so people can figure it out at a younger age,” she says.
It’s called Dyscalculia, which she says is like dyslexia but for math. According to the Cleveland Clinic: “Like dyslexia disrupts areas of the brain related to reading, dyscalculia affects brain areas that handle math and number related skills and understanding.”
Enriquez says the learning disability makes it hard for her to memorize or do any type of math.
She finished writing My Math Mess in February and published it on Amazon. Since then, it’s been posted on all the dyscalculia blogs. She sold 100 books in two months.
Dyscalculia is labeled as an uncommon learning disability. It’s so unknown that few people are tested for it.
In fact, she didn’t find out she had a learning disability until she took the PSAT.
“I’ve always had a problem with math,” she says. “I thought it was an anxiety.”
The PSAT indicated that she had top scores on everything but math.
“I saw my report,” she says. “In math I was like six years old. I did a Psychoeducational Evaluation.”
That’s when experts were able to diagnose the problem she’d struggled with her entire school career.
Enriquez compensated for her inability to understand math by studying extra hard, three hours for one test where her top score was a C, a let-down for an A student that barely had to study in all her other subjects.
Knowing that there was a defined reason for her math struggles has helped. She now gets special accommodations such as extra time for a test, color coding things on assignments and specialized tutors.
“Everyone was so good at it (math),” she says. “I felt I was dumb. It might catch more parents’ attention to look for more signs in their kids that it can help.”
It was so hard on her, that she would have panic attacks while taking math tests, but she was fine taking any other tests.
Since writing My Math Mess, she’s been doing publicity within the Dyscalculia Network, from Instagram posts to phone interviews.
She’s also tying her awareness campaign to her Girl Scout Gold Award project by creating a website as a resource for parents and students.
Enriquez volunteers for Breakthrough Miami at Palmer Trinity School. She used to attend Palmer Trinity and wanted to continue her work with the kids there. She was named Site Volunteer of the Year for her work. This summer, she’ll volunteer at Breakthrough as a camp counselor.
She’s a Student Ambassador for PORCH Pinecrest collecting food from neighbors to give to children who are food insecure.
“As a student ambassador, I go door knocking,” she says. “I set up routes for the volunteers. PORCH set up a food pantry at Palmetto.”
At school, she’s the secretary of Model United Nations and she’s a member of the girls’ tennis team.
This is her second year that she’s served on the Pinecrest Youth Advisory Council (YAC).
“This year, the thing we did different, we had assignments where we would go to the council meeting,” she says. “We would write about it and we could speak about it at meetings. I spoke about PORCH Pinecrest and how the youth advisory council would like to work with them on it.
In college, Victoria plans to study Psychology or Political science.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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