How Can You Help Your Child In Math?
You’ve all been there before - sitting at the dining table trying to help your daughter or son with their Math homework. You struggle to remember the methods you were taught 20 odd years ago, but you try anyway…. If you’re lucky, this lesson may end in a little disagreement, for the rest, it’s a puddle of tears.
“This isn’t how they do it anymore Dad, that’s not what my teacher taught me.”
As it turns out, this happens to be quite a universal experience.
Understanding “Mathematics Anxiety”
As the school year begins, and the homework begins piling in, there’s one word (or subject) that strikes fear in the hearts of both parents and students alike. Maths. This fear known as “Math’s Anxiety” is actually a very real phenomenon. According to the Centre for Neuroscience in Education (UOC), “Math’s Anxiety” can be described as a negative emotional reaction to mathematics. It’s a “feeling of tension and anxiety that interferes with the manipulation of numbers and the solving of mathematical problems in.. ordinary life and academic situations. Math’s anxiety can be so debilitating that it often results in students dropping the subject altogether in later years. It’s important to note that although maths anxiety is a common phenomenon in adults and children, it is not a measure of one's intelligence or ability. There are ways around it and there are ways to help your child with maths - minus the tears and stress. In this article, I will offer you a guide to help you help your child to reach their full potential in mathematics - whatever that may be. There are three small ways to help your child improve their mathematical abilities.
Utilize their attention span in the most efficient way.
Focus on recall and retention of mathematical concepts
Make it engaging for your child and relevant to their life.
1 - Utilize Their Attention Span Effectively
Have you ever tried watching a movie and found that you can’t stay focused the whole time? This is an example of a short attention span - something very common in teenagers. This is because the part of the brain responsible for focus, planning, and self control (the prefrontal cortex) - is still maturing during the teenage years. In fact the brain doesn’t fully mature until the mid-20s. In a study published by the Canadian Center of Science and Education, research showed that a student’s attention tends to drop over time during a lesson and only a small fraction of students can maintain full attention past 60 minutes in a lecture. Based on this research, if you want to help your child succeed in maths, keep their lessons short and sweet within the 60 minute time frame. Having taken this research into account at Cell Tuition, we keep our lessons within an hour- occasionally extending them to 90 minutes if absolutely necessary. That way, we can be confident that your child will be learning as efficiently as possible.
2 - Focus on Retention and Recall
In addition to attention span, retention and recall are other factors that are fundamental to successful learning.
Retention is the ability to store information in memory over time
Recall is the ability to retrieve and use stored information when needed.
When students effectively retain and recall information, they can easily access and apply it to build on existing knowledge and develop deeper understanding. The best way to help students retain and recall information effectively is by teaching them manageable chunks of information at a time and not bombarding them with too much information all at once. Research shows that spacing learning over time, rather than concentrating it in a single session, promotes deeper processing and better consolidation in long-term memory (Carpenter et al., 2022).
So as a parent, when you are helping your child, it would pay off for you to introduce new concepts slowly so that their brain is not overloaded with new information. Once the new concept has been introduced, part of the recall and retention process is then reinforcing the concept through review and practice.
Small worksheet tasks
Word problems
Short daily practice
At Cell Tuition we have also incorporated this method into our teaching. We always make sure to assign homework at the end of the lesson based on the concept we covered. It’s important to note that to avoid causing math anxiety, we keep the homework as achievable as possible. For example, we may give out 10 questions for them to complete over the week - meaning the student really only has to do 1 or 2 questions a day. It might sound simple, but the act of doing these questions will allow for consolidation in which the teachings are strengthened and integrated into long-term memory. The consolidation process is essential for building accessible knowledge that students can draw on in future learning. Not only does this ensure they are reviewing and practicing the concept they were taught every day, it also feels achievable for them. The developing teenage brain is more sensitive to excitement and rewards, so giving them an achievable amount of homework and rewarding them with praise will remove the feelings of anxiety (“Math’s Anxiety”) they might feel when they have to do maths.
3 - Make Maths Engaging and Relevant
As a ‘former’ hater of mathematics myself, I can say that part of the hatred stems from the dullness of the subject.
”What’s in it for me?”
”Why would I care about solving these problems?”
When you’re a grumpy teen, the last thing you care about is crunching numbers, so as a parent, the best thing you can do for your child is make it more exciting and engaging for them. Droning on and on while your child is passively listening is not going to help them. In order for a student to learn, they have to actively engage with the subject. Active engagement is essentially the most visible level of student interaction with educational content. When students are actively engaged they are usually participating in discussion and show enthusiasm towards their learning as opposed to sitting back and listening. Their involvement is characterised by a willingness to contribute ideas and an interest in the content, showing plainly that they are deeply connected with their learning. So as a parent, how can you make the subject more engaging for them? The answer is really quite simple, create engaging content for them.
Connecting Maths to Real Life
I cannot count the number of times me or my friends asked our teacher “Why is this relevant to me?” when completing maths tasks. To make your child care about maths it would help if you connected math to their daily life to show why it is relevant to them.
Calculate shopping discounts
Cook and measure ingredients together
Look at Sports statistics
Plan budgets
and so on
All of these are very real life scenarios which will help your child grasp the real-life relevance of mathematics making it more meaningful to them. Collaborative tasks are another way to ensure your child is actively listening as opposed to passively listening.
Encourage Discussions
Promote discussion when doing maths with your child - ask them to explain a particular mathematical concept to you or ask them questions about the concept to ensure they are actively engaging with the topic. This also helps with recall and retention of the particular topic - helping to integrate it into their long-term memory.
Use Visual Aids
Some students require visual aids to focus - such as graphs or tables. So, you could try providing your child with these aids so your child has a tangible resource in front of them - encouraging them to engage more with the content. At Cell Tuition, we also lean into this making sure we have an array of resources to meet the needs of every student - as everyone learns differently.
The bottom Line
The bottom line is everyone wants their child to succeed in Math. Nobody wants them to be crying at the dinner table and nobody wants them to be filled with anxiety at the mention of the subject. Whether it’s focusing on utilising their attention-span in the most efficient manner, giving them little tasks to implement new knowledge into their brains long-term, or making maths as engaging as possible for them, there's methods for every parent to help their child. If you would like to take the next step in helping your child with their mathematics then maybe you could refer them to tutoring. At Cell Tuition, we provide one-on-one tutoring both in person and online- offering your child a personalised way of improving their Math skills.
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