My child is maths anxious. What can I do?

The signs of maths anxiety are explained in this article on the Family Portal: What is maths anxiety, and what are the signs? If you think you're seeing these signs in your child, there are some simple things you can do to help.

One of the most important things you can do at home is to talk about maths in positive ways. This could be as simple as pointing out what types of regular things you do that involve maths.

For instance, when you are cooking and measuring out ingredients or when you are working out where to plant flowers in your garden.

There are lots more ideas on how to use maths in simple and fun ways at home in the "Everyday maths" articles in the Family Portal, for example Maths at home: Addition and Subtraction. Helping to illustrate how integral maths is in everyday life can make it seem less unfamiliar and less scary.

There are other ways to talk about and approach maths that can help:

• Make it clear to your child that the point of doing maths isn't just to get the answer at the end, it's also the problem-solving and thinking skills you use to get there. By doing this, it's easier then to focus on the effort your child is putting into maths and how important it is to practice their maths skills to improve.
• Make sure that they know that making mistakes is OK. Often mistakes help set us on a new path that leads to success.
• Help them to see that struggling in maths is also OK. Some children will give up right away when they are doing maths and can't immediately figure out the answer or the method to get the answer. But struggling, while sometimes uncomfortable, is part of how we learn and grow. As a parent, it's important to recognise whether you have a tendency to jump in when they are having trouble. Instead of doing this, let them face that trouble and give them a chance to work it out on their own for a while before you step in.

One of the most important things you can do is model positive ways to respond to your anxiety. If you are working on maths with your child and it is causing you to feel anxious, you could say: "I'm not sure how to work out this problem. How about we ask your teacher for some help with this?" Here you are showing your child not to avoid maths when they struggle but to ask for help.

Also, think about the way you talk about maths and whether you might be unconsciously talking about it in a negative way. You may have had a difficult past with maths, but that doesn't mean that needs to continue for you, or be the way your child interacts with maths.

Remember that maths anxiety is not a life sentence for you or your child. It is something that you can both work through.

Indifference, disinterest or dislike of maths could be linked to maths anxiety. This is not always the case, but can occur for some children.

Remember that one of the long-term impacts of maths anxiety is maths avoidance. Some children will try and avoid maths by instead talking about their dislike or disinterest in maths.

If your child shows this type of attitude towards maths, it could be a good idea to have a chat with them and find out if there is any underlying anxiety driving their attitude.

Just like with all emotions that we experience, feeling the emotion is not the problem. The issue is more what we do with it after we have felt it.

For instance, lots of people worry about public speaking. If you have a fear of public speaking and a close friend asks you to do a speech at their wedding, but you either tell them you can't or do the speech but freeze up in the middle of it, then your fear of public speaking is having a negative impact. On the other hand, if you are able to manage your fear and even use it so that your speech is the best one at the wedding, then is your fear of public speaking really a problem?

If your child expresses feelings of maths anxiety, ask yourself these questions:

• Do you think maths anxiety might be stopping them from investing effort in their maths learning?
• If you try and work on maths problems with your child, do you think their maths anxiety could be stopping them from processing maths concepts and ideas?
• Has your child ever talked about 'freezing' or 'blanking' when they are trying to do maths?

If you answered yes to any of these, firstly, remember that this doesn't mean that maths anxiety is going to be a long-term problem. It may be that your child's maths anxiety is negatively impacting their maths learning and if this is the case then there are additional strategies and tools that you can try with them to help.

If this is the case, then there are additional strategies and tools that you can try with them to help. Find out about these in our Family Portal article: What are the best strategies for dealing with maths anxiety?