DD11 has actually always been a very good "mechanical" math student, learning calculations with ease, but sometimes struggling with word problems or thinking outside the box. She is doing 6th grade gifted math in 5th right now, so only a year ahead (this is what they all do in her program). I think her teacher is pretty good.
Recently I'm seeing her applying formulas and concepts correctly but making a lot of mistakes in her "small stuff"--the calculations that have to be done to finish the problems. Some of it is stupid things like writing too small and misreading her own handwriting. But some of it is things like making 4 x 3 be 7 in a larger multiplication problem, forgetting she's working with a decimal in a division problem, missing a carried 1, etc. This is unlike her, since she's usually meticulous. Do we think this would be because she's being challenged by the conceptual math and having less time/brain space for the grunt work? What would explain a child suddenly having more problems with this? She isn't really sure what's happening, but the work has definitely gotten harder. This teacher grades hard, so she will miss 2/3 points on a problem where she did everything else right but made a calculation mistake like 4 x 3 is 7. (Maybe that's typical....I don't know.) Her grades are still okay, but it's frustrating. I'm wondering if it would help her to sit and do some drills in long, complex multiplication and division (I especially see dumb errors in difficult long division--she seems to crack up a little under pressure...but she did perfectly with this when it was taught as a stand-alone skill) or if that is the wrong thing. She's frustrated, too.
We have never really suspected any LDs with this one (she is a straight A student in a program where this is rare), but there has been the possibility of mild inattentive ADHD. In general, though, attention (ironically) is the area where we don't see many problems. She shows the emotional symptoms, not really the attentional ones.
