I do the same thing! Though my shapes are different, it's the same. My wife is tremendously bad at math and I kept telling her you have to picture things and she said I don't think of it that way, I just see the writing of the number itself and I say "well, that's why you're bad at math!".

This is the same thing as map reading or what we do in programming. The thing that's disappearing in this comic: https://heeris.id.au/2013/this-is-why-you-shouldnt-interrupt...

I also realized early on that I could count way faster if I fought the urge to say the numbers in my head because the idea of the number would still be there. I started by saying (eh eh eh eh eh) in my head instead of (one two three four five). Eventually you can do things like run your finger across a comb and instantly know how many bristles you passed - that gives you a tactile response for each number rather than the words themselves. If you count by 2s 3s or 5s you can go even faster (which is what the circle is doing in the article). Shortening the "time" axis of the counting.