Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school math facts weakness...

My DD who just turned five has always been stronger in language than math, but could still tell time, add simple things, skip count, etc. by three. She was recently tested and her math concepts were at third grade. She is good at puzzles, found learning to tell time to the minute intuitive, etc, yet it seems that math facts are a weak spot. I don't drill her. She is able to answer MANY facts, yet I am surprised that her astounding memory isn't able to hold and grasp more. I know that may sound awful, but it just seems she interacts with math facts different than anything else we encountered. There is no need for having these mastered now, esp since she is going to K in Sept. and they will barely be going beyond counting, but it seems to me that it would be nice for her to have them in her pocket so she can do more with numbers. She is fine with understanding fractions, the concept of multiplication, etc. but can mess up simple addition. Has anyone else's child shown this pattern? It is the only thing we encountered that didn't seem automatic.

This seems very common. In fact, she gets less opportunities to learn through drill than other children, so I would drill her! It's nice to have a child who is unusual in ways that schools 'get.' Cold knowledge of Math Facts is a way to speak the schools language, more so than, say, being able to compare two pieces of literature. Math Facts is something that most kids struggle with, and if she has them, they will 'get' that she is advanced.

I would still make a game out of the drill, and keep it fun and short, but I would go daily. I was lucky, in 3rd grade DH drove DS to school each morning, and that's about all they did in the car - drill math facts. DS and I are both still sort of shaky on them. Some families like songs, sometimes it's funny (punny) pictures. On my side of the family, it's card games like 'Casino'

http://www.pagat.com/fishing/casino.html

Smiles,
Grinity

I made a number line that runs across the floor. We play 'jump to the number'. I give the kids a question (on the chalkboard) and they take turns jumping on the answer. If they don't automatically know the answer then they can figure it out. We cover a lot of ground this way... it works well for DS3 and DD7.

Annaliisa

I find that even though Aiden (4) knows many maths factsalmost intuitively, once he has moved on to a new maths concept he seems to forget them until he needs them again.

We use games as much as possible to remind him that he knows them.

Yup, and in DS's case it's not that he's more languagey than mathy! I remember noticing this at about the same point, i.e. when he was happy with multiplication and fractions but could still make errors in basic addition. We never bothered drilling addition and subtraction facts (though we didn't object when school did it a bit) trusting that they'd get automatic after he'd been using them for a while longer; e.g. you can't do long multiplication without practising digit addition! Might have done if he hadn't been choosing to spend so much time on those things though. We did encourage him to learn his times tables by rote, a little while later, using Timez Attack.

Love that Timez Attack - DS4 loves to play from the beginning each time and DS2 loves to watch. And they are both learning along the way... even though I am not sure that DS2 understands the concept of multiplication - he knows his 2 times table! haha

Annaliisa, that sounds interesting. What did you use to make the number line?

Timez attack is adding division, addition and subtraction...my kids can't wait. Right now we just play for free. Once they add the addition, subtraction and division...I will get them each a few months subscription to the fancier version (my older son could use the review and loves the game and once he tires of it I'll cancel his). My younger son will probably have his subscription for longer.

DS9 has the same issue. His math reasoning is incredible (easily tests in the 7th to 8th grade age ....he's in 3rd grade), but give him simple multiplication tables and he falls apart. In fact, he tests pretty average in calculation. I've never understood how he can be a "math genius" and not be able to do simple calculations. If anyone has an explanation for this, I'd love to hear it.

We used Timez attack quite a bit this past year. DS was frustrated with it because he felt like he had to answer the drills too quickly. He does have a relative weakness with processing speed, so I guess that makes sense.

My son in first grade tested into 5th-6th grade on the math parts of the WJ test. He really has to work on his math facts.
He has a processing learning disability. On the WISC, he got 98-99% (99% on most parts) and 40% on the PSI part. He has written into his IEP for his hearing loss that he can have extended time on tests but he has never used it.
I would just keep working on it. flashcards. I bought Kumon. I have him once a week do the 2 minute drill they do in school.
Interestingly, my son seems able to answer the questions faster verbally than with writing. I've suggested to him that when he does a written test, to whisper the question to himself to see if that accesses some faster, different part of his brain. His handwriting is excellent so it isn't that.
My son is doing Mathblasters but at a lower level- he said it was "stressing him out" at higher levels since it was "too fast."