Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Can Someone Help Me Figure This Out Please?

Our 6yr old DD has always had a very difficult time learning math facts. As far as we knew she only had +/- 0,1,2 mastered since anytime we give her a math facts worksheet or ask her to answer facts verbally she struggles with anything above that. Last night we had her practice math facts online. Since it was the first time she had done it we started her off easy, 5 minute time limit, addition only with sums up to 10. The goal was to correctly answer as many math facts as possible during the 5 minutes. It wasn't multiple choice. She had to use the mouse to click the correct answer using a 0-9 keypad that was on the screen. She answered 60 math facts in 5 minutes and only missed 2. I was sitting right next to her so I know she didn't count on her fingers or use paper and pencil. She breezed through math facts I thought she didn't know like it was nothing! I don't understand. Why isn't she able to do the same thing on worksheets or if she's asked to answer math facts verbally? I'd really appreciate it if someone could help me make sense of this.

My guess is perfectionism, self-doubt, and the fear of answering wrongly. My DD7 does this... I can see in her eyes she knows the answers, but she still pauses before answering, mentally checks her work, and then brings out the fingers.

It looks like you've provided her with a mechanism for her to experience an "Aha! I can do it!" moment.

Great that she had that success experience! 60 in 5 mins is 5 seconds per sum, which for sums within 10 is time enough to envision the sum in your mind's eye and either subitise or mentally count to the answer. My guess - and it is only a guess - is that in this new situation, she used that sensible strategy, whereas in situations where she's been told she's supposed to "know" these facts, she obediently tries to recall the answer without any working out and ends up either giving up or guessing. What happens if you tell her you're interested in knowing how she worked out each answer, and get her to describe what went on in her head? (Since it obviously worked, you'd want to encourage pretty much whatever she said!)

Personally, I really hate the culture of "learning" "maths facts", at least for very young children like this. I think ideally knowing them is something that should be a side effect of having used them so very often in context, not a goal in itself. OK, some children like doing it, and then sure, why not; and on the other hand, if you get to a point where a child has conceptual understanding way beyond the operations involved in the maths facts, and still can't work them out fast, so that this is slowing the child down in a way that annoys them, then there may be some point in doing some memorisation work then. But otherwise, it seems to me likely to do far more harm than good.

If she enjoyed this experience, I'd suggest encouraging her to do this same exercise every day for a bit (not going on to harder sums, or consciously trying to get faster, unless or until she herself pushes for that), just as practice. I'd emphasise that if you get to be able to work out the answer very fast instead of memorising it, that's just fine. Some people find one or the other easier, and either works.

I don't know what to think. Her processing speed is a good deal lower than her other scores (121 procesing vs 142 verbal and 147 perceptual)and her working memory is a definite hindrance at 107. I am starting to wonder if it is perhaps an output problem of some sort. She has always struggled with writing, but typically she does fine with verbal responses. I know she is extremely visual spatial, but would that alone explain this?

ColinsMum, I guess that is a possibility. That she counted in her head. I'm just not sure though. The first 20 seconds or so of the practice she was too busy talking about something to do any problems and then she also took a few breaks during the 5 minutes to ask us various questions or comment on things. If I had to guess I'd say she actually had about 3 1/2-4 minutes of the 5 where she actually was doing the program.

I am a very strong visual learner and very poor auditory. To this day, I will demand "Let me just see the question (or report or request)!", when my auditory dh attempts to read it to me. In short: maybe she needs visual clues.