My daughter has very low (relative) working memory scores. Math is one of her biggest struggles and for the same reason you mention. She has a very difficult time keeping the numbers in her head while manipulating them. She also has ADHD and HATES math, so a lack of interest in the subject matter could be part of it. She can do the work but often/always makes mistakes in basic computing. It frustrates her immensely and she has trouble getting past the easy calculations to the rest of the work because she wants to walk away as soon as she makes a mistake.
My daughter also hates the impact that mistakes have. She gets very down even talking about it. "if I make one little mistake I get the whole answer wrong, and if it is a multi-part question, sometimes I get all the parts wrong because of it!"
I am curious about the working memory. Is that the test where the children have to remember lists of numbers or something like that? Would that weakness show up in other places besides math? For example in English or music or something like that?
I agree that she needs computational practice in all cases. I looked at IXL and the Jump math thread that started this morning has got me thinking...
I am telling myself that if she had ADD or something like it I would have seen it in other places as well...? Any red flags that people had before their children were diagnosed would be helpful to me. I think she does a good job of keeping on top of her work, but she definitely isn't perfect. I mean how do you know what's going on in someone else's brain?
