Helping Your Child Overcome Maths Anxiety

Many parents have experienced it. The tearful homework sessions, the unused maths workbooks gathering dust. Low grades. We understand the frustration. You just want your child to do well. It’s important to remember that maths anxiety is a common and very real psychological response. It is not a sign of low intelligence! It’s useful to know the signs that your child is struggling, and from there you can implement some soft strategies to help them. It’s not a one-size-fits-all kind of thing, and you must adjust your approach to every child.

Spotting the Signs

Students and children will often give negative self-talk about their abilities. You may often hear, “I just can’t do it” or “I just don’t get it” or even “I’m just stupid”. Some children and students may have visible or physical symptoms when they know they have a maths lesson or a test. Do they shake, feel sick, have a racing heartbeat or become tearful? They may also be avoidant of anything math-related, including homework. You may notice that they enjoy finishing the homework from other subjects, but not maths, and consciously avoid it. They may revise and revise, and then when it comes to exams, their mind goes completely blank.

Ways to help overcome maths anxiety

Shift their mindset

Children and students often get disheartened when they struggle to calculate things quickly. Explain to your child that speed does not mean they are not good at maths. Encourage them to view mistakes as a way of learning. We cannot learn if we do not make any mistakes.

Break It Down

Teach them to break up a question into smaller parts. It will be overwhelming to try and work out everything all at once and will only add to the frustration.

Use visual methods

Depending on how your child learns, it may be useful to use objects, diagrams or pictures to explain methods. That way they can see visually how things work in a simpler way and one that’s easy to imagine.

Embrace mistakes

Foster a supportive, patient environment where getting something wrong isn’t a failure. It’s a step towards success.

Practice breathing and mindfulness techniques

It may be useful to teach your child quick and simple breathing exercises that they can do before starting their maths homework or a test in school. You may want to do these with them. Simple deep breaths and releases to a count to 5 help steady anxiety. Mindfulness helps the brain to stay in the present moment when anxious brains want to jump to the future and worry about the what ifs. Studies have shown that mindfulness can have a positive effect on maths performance. It can also help concentration as it fosters the learning of maths concepts more deeply.

Professional support can make a big difference

It is often the case that the classroom environment can be an intimidating place for many students. Teaching is often rushed, and students don’t get the support they truly need. It can also be embarrassing for students to get things wrong in front of their peers for fear of being labelled stupid. Private tuition lessons offer one-on-one, or small group settings where students are free to learn at their own pace and ask questions freely without judgement.

The Dr Sergis Academy can help

Is your child behind or struggling with maths? At the Dr Sergis Academy we specialise in building academic confidence step by step. Book a free, no-obligation introductory session today to see how our passionate, talented, and qualified tutors can help your child feel confident and succeed in their studies. Visit www.dsacademy.co.uk for more information.