What are the best strategies for dealing with maths anxiety?

Breathing exercises work by reducing the physical and mental agitation associated with experiencing maths anxiety in the moment. By focusing on deep breaths in and out and making sure they are not shallow breaths (which can lead to further feelings of anxiety), your child might start to feel less agitated and fearful, and then feel more able to focus on the maths they are doing.

There are lots of different types of breathing exercises, but some that are more commonly written about are belly breathing, box breathing or square breathing. Belly breathing is a good choice for younger children.

It's a good idea to introduce breathing exercises and practice them at a time when your child is not maths anxious. This will make the technique more of a habit and then easy to draw on when they can identify themselves starting to feel high levels of maths anxiety.

Expressive writing or 'journaling' is a good technique to consider for older children who are able to express their thoughts through writing. Ask your child to write down all their worries and fears about maths. Make it clear that you won't be reading this writing - only your child will have access to these words.

The idea behind this technique is that, by putting words on paper, your child has an opportunity to take negative thoughts or beliefs and place them 'outside' their thinking, free of judgement.

It's up to your child what they then do with what they have written. Some might want to rip it up. Some might want to talk about what they have written. Some might want to put it in a box and then come back to it later. This latter idea can be useful for helping children to put things in perspective. For instance, "I was able to understand fractions, it just took me some time, but at the time I wrote this I thought I was never going to get it."

If you child can identify when they are starting to feel maths-anxious and use one of these techniques, it could have the following benefits:

1. This is the obvious one - using these techniques can help your child to feel less fearful or worried in the moment about maths.
2. Once they are less anxious, they will be more likely to have a go at the maths they are supposed to be doing and will probably work more productively without anxiety clouding their thinking.
3. They will leave the situation knowing that they can use this strategy whenever they feel anxious in the future, and that it can help.
4. They might feel more agency or feel more in-control of their maths learning.

It's really important to remember that anxiety is not all bad:

• Firstly, it shows we care (we wouldn't be anxious about something we didn't care about).
• Secondly, it can keep us focused and alert.
• Thirdly, often we perform at our best when we are a little bit anxious.

To help understand this last point, think about the way an athlete might use the anxiety they feel before a race or game to motivate them to action. Maths anxiety can be thought of in the same way. It can be a powerful performance facilitator under the right circumstances. The problem is when levels of maths anxiety become too high and turn into an obstacle that harms learning rather than helps it.

So when you are thinking about your child's maths anxiety, rather than focusing on a need to eliminate it, consider that the best thing to do is help your child manage their maths anxiety and reduce it to a level that it doesn't interrupt their maths learning.