Elena Scialtiel - page 2

Elena Scialtiel has 13 articles published.

Count on Me

in Health & Beauty

Dyscalculia: how to spot it and factor it in your daily life

Back to school! Books at the ready! History, geography and maths… yes maths: the spook of diligent pupils since arithmetic, calculus and geometry were invented. 

Back to school! Books at the ready! History, geography and maths… yes maths: the spook of diligent pupils since arithmetic, calculus and geometry were invented.

But what if the venially convoluted paths in the maths labyrinth, that the national syllabus claims to be essentially educational towards problem-solving for pre-teens, tweens and teens, become an indecipherable code nightmare of cryptic symbols and senseless spatial directions?

Dyscalculia is a learning disorder which is generally regarded as the mathematical equivalent of dyslexia, because it impairs a child’s ability to recognise, understand and use numbers and their signs, akin, but not scientifically comparable, to the dyslexic’s difficulty in dealing with letters. 

Unlike dyslexics who may be disappointed in their reading and writing efforts, but usually excel in art, music, and sports, dyscalculics find music notation or choreographies challenging, which frustrates their bid to play an instrument or take up dance, limits their team work in collective sports, and hinders their sense of composition in drawing and photography.

Dyslexia and dyscalculia rarely occur together, but over 10% of children with dyscalculia are also diagnosed with ADHD; dyscalculia is common in people with Turner Syndrome and spina bifida. It has no connection to, or implications on, IQ. 

It is estimated that 3-6% of the population suffers from this condition since birth and has to come to terms with it in everyday usage of numbers, time, measurement and orientation.

There is a sizeable risk of over- or under-diagnosing it, because it isn’t easy to draw the line between conscious disinterest in the world of maths and its abstract problems and the cerebral impediment to count, in order to spot dyscalculia as early as possible and commence treatment. Often, it isn’t until a child struggles disproportionately with simple additions and subtractions that teachers start sussing out the problem and advise parents to seek medical attention. 

Red flags are: fiddling with telling the time from analogue clocks; difficulties speaking the name of a single-digit number, for example if a 4-shaped candle is placed on the cake and the child is asked “What is it?”, the answer will come as “candle!” even when prompted that it is indeed a candle, but fashioned like a specific concept they are invited to name; inability to accurately guess the number of objects in a small group, or compare the distance of two or more landmarks; confusing 6 with 9, 2 with 5, 1 with 7, and 3 with 8 (not necessarily all at once!); failure to identify geometrical shapes without a practical aid, for example triangles are pizza slices, spheres are balls and polygonal figures are pound sterling coins.

One quick test is ‘subitizing’, i.e. estimating a number of items without counting them one by one. It is proven that a five-year old child can correctly estimate up to six at a glance, particularly when playing board games with dice. Failure to do so isn’t of course enough for a dyscalculia diagnosis, but the child should be encouraged to try again and stimulated with simple alphanumeric problems to gauge their literacy and numeracy and compare progress in each.

Sometimes, affected children do just fine in pre-school, and symptoms become more apparent as long as their maths studies progress: they may in fact be comfortable with naming numbers or telling the time, but their brains get mumbled when confronted with multiplication, division, fractions, no matter the amount of visual aids; almost paradoxically however, their struggle mellows with algebra, just because it uses alphabetical symbols instead of numerical.

The good news is that almost a third of children diagnosed with dyscalculia improve over the first four or five school years, but it isn’t clear whether this is due to early misdiagnosis, or just to the overcoming of physiologic delays in matching developmental milestones.

Academically, dyscalculics are inclined to pursue careers in humanities, as they excel in reading, writing and storytelling, but college students affected by dyscalculia, even mild, must be supervised in their financial planning, as they often fail to comprehend budgeting, balancing, and estimating whether they’re carrying enough money to pay for the items they’ve slipped in their shopping basket.

Research in dyscalculia is still in its infancy, because it carries some practical problems in consistent and continuous experimenting on large groups of subjects, so consensus on correct diagnosis is loose, and often it is too conservative. 

Causes are unknown, and bids to prove them as environmental, hereditary or congenital have all returned inconclusive, although, as mentioned earlier, this disorder is associated, and perhaps caused, by other conditions.

Treatment is usually tailored to each patient, and greatly helped by technology, with specifically designed software.

Dyscalculia and acalculia (total loss of the concept of numbers) can strike in adult age as the result of brain injury, like trauma or stroke: often their effects can be reversed through rehabilitation.

The opposite, called hypercalculia, exists too, and it seems to be linked to autism spectrum disorders and associated with hyper-perfusion of the parietal areas and overdeveloped right temporal lobe.

Dyscalculics are highly sociable, real party animals – their lucky number is ‘the more the merrier’ – despite having trouble in telling apart new acquaintances whose names begin with the same letter. 

And of course, they shilly-shally at acknowledging the number of drinks that amounts to ‘one too many’.

Also known as 45,X and 45.X0, this is a rare genetic condition that affects only girls who are born with swollen feet and hands and grow up with webbed neck, low-set ears and require hormone treatment to develop breasts and produce their menarche, albeit often remaining infertile. 

This article is aimed at being informative only with no medical or diagnostic pretenses. Consult your GP if you suspect someone is suffering from the condition described.

Gianni Ocaña – PROTAGONISTA

in Culture Insight/Features
Gianni Ocana
Gianni Ocana

Fresh from publication in the avant-garde South-East Asian literary magazine Outcast (Volume III, Once Upon a Time) with his short story ‘City of Bridges’, twenty-one-year old Gianni Ocaña is now testing his creativity with a first novel, titled ‘Protagonista’, to be posted in regular instalments on Wattpad throughout summer and beyond.

“Every so often, hopefully weekly but more realistically fortnightly, I will post a new chapter to this online platform that affords exposure to writers and illustrators. I am introducing every chapter with my hand-drawn illustrations, to highlight the salient parts of the cepisode,” the young author says.

The novel fits in the romance genre with some forays into horror and fantasy. Its most captivating stylistic trick is narrating the storyline in first person, but from the perspective of both protagonists, so that each chapter is split in two parallel narratives, one delivered by the Dreamer, closely followed by his love interest (even before knowing it), the Millionaire, offering his own rebuttal.

In other words: a story so nice you gotta read it twice! And because it is delivered feuilleton style, it will contain plenty of cliff-hangers to keep readers hooked and hungry for more, so that they return to Wattpad regularly.

Gianni Ocana

Gianni claims this to be a loosely autobiographic story, largely based on his recurrent dreams: “Set in Gibraltar and in a make-believe metropolis the readers won’t have any trouble to identify with the real one that inspired it, this is an intense love story between two young men, developing throughout their twenties, but there is no definite ‘happily ever after’, so I can leave my options open for the sequel, and perhaps a trilogy.”

The main character concocts his love interest in his dreams and falls in love with him. Later, through some spectacular shifts in reality, he bumps into him in person over and over again, and has to overcome many obstacles to conquer his heart.

“I prefer writing in first person and past tense, because it is easier to identify in the narrator and explore his thoughts and actions, but first person obviously poses some limitations in the story’s objectivity, and makes it unilateral when it comes down to analysing other characters’ feelings, motivations or actions when the narrator isn’t present.

“There are always two or more sides to one story: I reckon that telling them both or all helps readers learn about twists in the plot gradually, with each side highlighting what is most relevant for them and altogether contributing to the bigger picture.”

Gianni wants to portray all facets of his characters, as he believes that we are different people to different people: “For example, I was bullied a lot in school, but I learnt not to regard them as ‘just bullies’ when I saw them laughing with, and not at, their friends, or hugging their parents: I realised that deep down they were decent people to someone else, friendly to their friends, and devoted to their families.”

Unrequited, tempestuous at first, his romance is also marred by an atypical triangle with a ghostly presence that lurks in the shadows of both protagonists’ lives: “There is another central figure who is the reason behind the Dreamer’s reality shifts and the dark aura haunting the Millionaire, who isn’t rich on his own credit, but because he inherited his fortune from his orphaned best friend, self-made businessman with no family but the (future) Millionaire to leave his wealth too, when premature death strikes.”

Gianni continues: “The dark character can alter reality because he is a writer and illustrator – and there is a bit of myself in him too, although I tend to identify the most with the Dreamer. There are two versions of him in this world, one is the antagonist of the protagonist, so to speak, whom readers will love to hate, but he will take up a complex role in the sequel, where he will be likeable.”   

He analyses how the characters fall in love with personality and how their physical appearance and emotional history come into the equation to affect it, and mould into a uniquely shaped piece of the puzzle into which only one other person(ality) fits perfectly.

Hence his characters steer clear from the clichés of romance fiction – no tall, dark and handsome brooding heroes or blonde beauties, which are conversely tipped to make an appearance in his forthcoming fantasy series ‘Emerald Kingdom’. Here, the protagonists are a beautiful golden-haired princess and her suitor, moulded upon Gianni’s parents, whom he describes as fully supportive of who he is and the dreams he follows.

The drafts of this series, or better said, saga, date back to his childhood when he imagined an Emerald Club, populated by magical and extraordinary creatures. “These stories are all interconnected, and already fleshed out in my mind; I just need to find the time to write them down, between my studies and part-time job.”

Gianni is in fact hoping to pursue an academic career in creative writing soon, while he works as a cameraman to film local football matches, which gives him the opportunity to learn how to narrate epic battles, such as the ones he is planning for his ‘Ivory Kingdom’, a fantasy novel based on chess, where he adds a red army to the standard black and white ones, for extra suspense in a love-war triangle.

He is not intentionally writing a roman à clef, but his work does contain positive messages sprinkled around so sparingly that you blink and you miss it. Yet, they don’t get lost on shrewd eyes, and his stories have been praised by the sternest critics, his friends and teachers at the College, who got an exciting sneaky peek into a world where everyone is a protagonist.

Like his Facebook pages Protagonista: Dreamer
Side and Protagonista: Millionaire Side and
follow him on Instagram as just_another_wolf .

Another one bites the dust! Pica telltale signs and treatment of the non-food eating disorders

in Health & Beauty

“Eating dirt is beneficial for children: it builds their immune system!” The old wives’ tale reassures mums who watch in dismay their tots nibbling at the sandbox or licking the floor.

But what if it becomes a habit?

If this behaviour continues consistently and sometimes compulsively, you may want to seek medical attention, in particular, if they are pre-teens, teens or young adults.

Pica is diagnosed through the medical history of the patient, usually after a series of acute episodes, whether or not resulting in a trip to A&E – although medical attention is always advisable if you’re concerned your child may have swallowed something dangerous.

If relatively big quantities of substances with no nutritional value, toxic or dangerous for the body, like rusty scraps, glass, plastic, wood, soap, pebbles, metal, ash, are ingested voluntarily, consciously and repeatedly for  a month at least, it is advisable to make a GP appointment to discuss treatment, whether pharmacological or psychological.

The incidents must be acknowledged as developmentally and culturally inappropriate to qualify for a pica assessment.

In fact, some cultures consider acceptable and actually advisable the ingestion of non-food items like clay or charcoal to treat dysentery, or flowers or ash for ritual purposes: in these cases, pica is ruled out because ingestion is not the consequence of a recurring impulse, but an informed choice.

Children under two years of age do mouth objects to explore the world and this leads to accidental ingestion, but it doesn’t mean to be a pica telltale, unless they throw mealtime tantrums as a consequence.

However, pica seldom causes loss of appetite for conventional food, and sufferers tend to binge on non-food items on a whim. 

Often it is a sign of mild or severe malnutrition and it can be corrected by identifying the missing nutrient(s) and modifying the diet accordingly.

There are no path-lab tests to ascertain pica, but iron and other minerals deficiency tests are advised, because the disorder may subside as soon as supplements are introduced in the diet and the chemical balance is restored.

The patient should also be tested for potential side effects of the substances ingested, for example for lead poisoning if they ate paint flakes, or intestinal blockages if they went for paper or hair, and for viral or bacterial infections if they ate contaminated matter – urgently in case of their own excrements, which isn’t uncommon for potty-training toddlers. 

It is frequent for pregnant women to crave for non-food, especially pebbles, so they must discuss it with their obstetrician as soon as it happens. Furthermore, amylophagia (cravings for purified starch) may indicate gestational diabetes.

A sudden desire for chalk for example can be an instinctual cry for help from their bodies that are lacking in calcium for the baby’s bones. They should then redirect their attention towards cottage cheese or brown bread.

Pica may also be a side effect of mental disorders and it can lead to spotting the early signs of autism or schizophrenia. Here, the patient can be dissuaded from consuming non-food items with the offering of treats of the same aspect, such as chocolate if they want wood, or jelly beans if they fancy flower petals.

Pica may follow trichotillomania, the hair pulling disorder, when the patient ingests or tries to ingest any pulled hair (trichophagia), and excoriation, when scabs and skin are picked, as well as onychophagia, caused most of the time not by sulfur deficiency alone, but by anxiety and a lower degree of self-harm tendencies.

Pica was first described by Hippocrates and later named after the Latin word for magpie, a bird popularly believed to steal and be able to digest everything.

Subtypes are named after the Greek word for the substance ingested: geomelophagia for raw potatoes (watch out! Uncooked spuds can be poisonous!); xylophagia for wood and paper; acuphagia for sharp objects; hyalophagia for glass; lithophagia for stones; cautopyreiophagia for spent matches, and so on.

Bodily fluids make the list too with mucophagia, emetophagia, urophagia, coprophagia and hematophagia: these must be taken very seriously since they are the cry for help from a malnourished body in such desperate need for nutrients to be prepared to recycle its own refuse. 

This article is aimed at being informative only with no medical pretense. Consult your GP if you suspect someone is suffering from the condition described.

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