11 Plus Exams Forum

My 9 year old (coming to end of Y4) struggles really maths anxiety. We are currently trying to get him secure on his times tables in prepraration for starting entrance exam tuition next year and he is really struggling with retaining basic facts and solving simple calculations. He often uses 'counting on' method and has mastered some of his tables but then just draws a blank if we ask him to recall them the following day, for example.

We have tried incorporating questions into daily life, card games etc and he uses Hit the button and times tables me. However, he continues to get upset when he does not get them correct, he often cries and calls himself "dumb".

We have also adopted Growth mindset principles and discussed his worries about maths with him. He descibes a feeling of blankness when asked a maths question, heart racing and panic.

Any advice? It's heartbreaking seeing him like this. His school assements show that he is comfortably meeting age expectatations for maths and his teacher reports that he is able to solve problems when he has the opportunity to work things out but that the 'mental maths' does seem to be an issue.

My immediate thought is do not put the added pressure of the 11+ on him then, but you probably don't want to hear that....

That was my first thought too.

Do you play the games with him? I answered a similar post with lots of ideas fairly recently - I'll add the link if I can find it. You need to make maths fun because it certainly is!

Here: https://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum ... =2&t=54736" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you go to the Maths section there is also some ideas for improving solution of word problems.

kenyancowgirl wrote:My immediate thought is do not put the added pressure of the 11+ on him then,

Quite.

He will also be picking up how important this is to you, so as well as struggling with his own anxiety, he is trying to manage yours too. I agree he should not be put under any more pressure with unnecessary exams, and feel he should now have a lovely summer not doing any school work at all.

Thanks for all your comments.

My ds is older (year but was also getting quite stressed about what he perceived as his difficultly with some maths (I suspect well above average but fairly average in his school). This year he asked me for support and it was good (for both of us). I found it helpful to help him break things down into component parts and show him strategies to cope with his immediate panic-feeling when he couldn't remember what to do. I discovered he was looking at the whole sum and panicking because he couldn't immediately get to the end of it. By working out tiny stage by tiny stage and being reminded that he could do those stages (with tons of praise) he is now feeling a lot happier about maths.
I also discovered that he had put some pressure on himself to get into top maths set next year - I'm sure he won't have done and I'm quite glad about that - but it was very helpful to realise he was feeling that pressure (internal, nothing from us, but also wanting to "keep up" with his sister) because I could help to diffuse it.

I genuinely think some people don’t have that capacity to be put on the spot and work things out and then for some the stress is enough to cause them to panic...I always need to have a bit of space around me to think and process things. Give me a bit of paper or let me close my eyes so I can work it out. I am very much a visual thinker....and used to blank out if toomuch pressure or attention on me.
I’m not sure if that counts as some sort of deficit or disorder but getting awareness of it has helped....

I have worked with children in small booster groups who have got it in their heads that they can't do maths and why should I need to learn maths. The way I have helped the, get round these thoughts was to show them how much of the real world uses maths from doing some simple cooking including increasing the amounts (tables, ratio, weight) then selling the items for charity (money, adding, subtracting). The comments afterwards have been "that was fun", "when are we going to do some maths?" Finally all of them felt more confident once I started to show them that they had been doing maths all along and what they could now do which they did then translate back into classwork.

Over the summer make maths learning fun and maybe don't make it obvious and you might find his confidence will come up.

I play lots of games with my "Maths Club" ,
Online games are great
try mathplayground( who do tablet friendly games)
sheppard software


This one is really good for speeding up mental maths. Ther is a 2 player version as well.
http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/Gh ... /gbcd.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.arcademics.com/games/meteor" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is great for co-ordinates
http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/Bi ... coord.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I also play snakes and ladders. Have a set of questions (e.g. tables, How many cm in a metre etc.) You play against the child. Everytime the child lands on a snake they can avoid going down it if they answer question correctly. If they land on a ladder they need to answer the question to be able to go up. When it is your turn they can stop you going up ladder or make you go down snake by answering a question correctly. It works well as it puts them in charge, rather than playing against someone who has better ability. Also children are really competitive, turn anything into Bingo and they are well away.