The 4 Core Cognitive Components of Efficient Math Performance

July 13 is “Embrace Your Geekness” Day and LearningRx is all about removing the negative stigma from the term “geek” AND reminding parents that there’s no such thing as being destined to have math struggles.

While genetics can certainly play a role in learning challenges, such as dyscalculia (a fancy word for “trouble with numbers”), most learning struggles are caused by one or more weak cognitive skills. And there’s MORE good news: cognitive skills can be targeted and strengthened at any age!

What are cognitive skills?

Cognitive skills are the core skills your brain uses to think, read, learn, remember, reason, and pay attention. Working together, they take incoming information and move it into the bank of knowledge you use every day at school, at work, and in life. These brain skills include attention, logic & reasoning, processing speed, memory, auditory processing, and visual processing.

Each of your cognitive skills plays an important part in processing new information. That means if even one of these skills is weak, no matter what kind of information is coming your way, grasping, retaining, or using that information is impacted.

What are the core cognitive components of efficient math performance?

Although the results of a Brain Skills Assessment will ultimately help determine which programs will be best for each student, our MathRx program is often the best course for those dealing with dyscalculia or math difficulties. The program is designed to improve the following core cognitive components:

• Comprehension

• Reasoning

• Attention

• Memory

How does brain training go beyond math tutoring?

Many parents believe that when their child is struggling with math, they simply need a tutor to further explain the curriculum. Though tutoring can be very beneficial in some instances, it doesn’t always help the root cause of the problem. If a tutor teaches and reteaches information over and over again, students can get quite frustrated if they don’t grasp it. Our 1-on-1 personal brain training programs improve the skills your child uses and needs in order to excel in math.

How do I get my student started?

To get started, schedule your Brain Skills Assessment at your local LearningRx. This hour-long Assessment will give our brain trainers (and you) a detailed understanding of your strengths and weaknesses and provide us the information we need to formulate a program that will target your math struggles.