I would agree for algebra, geometry, statistics, logic, and probably other stuff we haven't tried, like calculus . I'm saving the Calculus for Young People books for a snow day this winter.
DD is 8 and finishing up 5th grade math supposedly in the next week or so. (She is in school, so I've heard she is most probably moving up in Nov, but don't know exactly what that means.)
I have seen a big jump with her computation speed and organization in the past 6 months. (This is more of a typical development area for her.) Last spring, she just couldn't do long division or multiple digit multiplication in any sort of timely or accurate fashion and we dropped it for a few months. This fall she's doing the same stuff, but also with decimals no problem. Not speed demon fast, but solid. So I do think there is something to the math and brain development thing, but not in the way I hear educators talk about it.
There are some Abstract Reasoning and Algebra readiness test out there - I know dd took some at school - but I don't know exactly what they are called.
