Math can be a source of anxiety for many people—and for many people, it starts at a young age. If your learner is already showing signs of fearfulness, stress, or anxiety around math or numbers, you may hope that these feelings will go away eventually. However, being proactive about these concerns can often help your learner tackle their fears head-on. In these situations, you may want to consider math training.
It’s estimated that 17% of Americans grapple with math anxiety, including children, teens, and adults. This anxiety response isn’t just related to dealing with math as a classroom subject. It can also create all kinds of obstacles when handling a variety of everyday tasks that may require simple or complex math.
What’s especially important to know is that math anxiety doesn’t correlate to an individual’s actual abilities—in other words, it doesn’t mean that they’re good at math or bad at it. But equally important to know is that this anxiety response can impede a person’s performance when completing math-related tasks. This can create a vicious cycle of fear and discouragement that makes it so much harder for the person to return to math.
Knowing all of that, it’s especially important to take steps to address math anxiety when it begins to surface. For many learners, this starts as early as childhood. Let’s take a look at what math anxiety looks like, and why math training might be the right solution for your learner.
Understanding How Students Experience Math Fears
What Causes Math Anxiety?
Before we look at symptoms of math anxiety or how math training can help, it’s useful to explore a few causes for the problem. Here are 4 common reasons that kids start to fear math at an early age:
- Picking up cues around them. Kids are incredibly sensitive to the world around them, and they can pick up cues early that math is meant to be difficult, challenging, or scary. Whether they’re getting this from peers, family members, or something they see on TV, it can plant the fear early.
- An increase in complexity. While fears around math can start very young, they tend to kick up around middle school. That’s often because middle school math introduces more complex ideas, many of which require students to have a strong basis in previous materials.
- Why girls struggle more than boys. Unfortunately, girls often exhibit more anxiety than boys—but this isn’t because girls are worse at math. Instead, it’s because they pick up societal assumptions that girls will have a harder time with math, giving them more to be nervous about.
- Cognitive differences that make math harder. For students with dyscalculia, ADHD, or other cognitive differences, math may feel like an especially fraught subject. They may be dealing with specific challenges related to math, or they may simply assume they’ll have a tough time.
4 Symptoms of Math-Related Stress
How can you tell if your learner needs math training, or if they’re dealing with math anxiety? It’s not always easy to tell that they’re having a tough time. But here’s a few possible symptoms to keep watch for:
- Negative self-talk. “I’m just not good at math.” When you start to hear your learner say disparaging things about themselves or their abilities, that may be a good time to investigate a little further.
- Poor grades. If your child consistently receives poor grades in math, they may need support—whether that’s because they’re struggling with the subject or with their fears around the subject. Either way, it’s worth speaking to their teacher about it.
- Avoidance of math-related tasks. You may notice that your learner steers clear of tasks that involve math, like making change, doing math homework, adding up numbers, or other similar tasks. If you see this occurring on a regular basis, it may be cause for concern.
- An emotional response. If your learner frequently demonstrates heightened emotions when dealing with math, that’s also a worry. These can manifest in signs of stress, panic, or nervousness, and may escalate to crying or anger, too.
If your learner is having a hard time, it’s important to know that support can have a huge impact. Let’s review what math training can do.
How Does Math Training Help?
At LearningRx, we understand that math fear can start early. That’s why we offer math training programs for kids as well as teens and adults. We know that the right form of one-on-one support can be a game-changer for learners of all ages!
Through one-on-one math training, we help learners get familiar with thinking about numbers, quantities, and equations. Students work on drills and exercises, giving them exposure to math concepts frequently and with the support of a one-on-one brain trainer.
Every math training program is different because we customize our approach based on the specific needs and difficulties of each student. But as learners advance through their individualized program, they can also build specific skills related to math and math learning!
Empower your learner with one-on-one math training. To find your local LearningRx, visit us online—or get in touch with us at 866-BRAIN-01 to find out more information.
