Mental Maths - how to help DS 9

[Solo2]

Are there any specific techniques to help children improve their Mental Maths skills?

DS1 aged 9 (I've written about him on the G & T section) is struggling in subjects he 'should' be good at and especially in Mental Maths in maths lessons. He can't seem to think internally and work it out in his head. He can much more easily do sums if he can discuss them out loud or - of course - work them out on paper - though even then needs someone there to support him.

I think he has some specific processing difficulties. So are there very particular techniques that can help a child like this?

I'm a trainee primary school teacher and we do a lot of work on the difference between "instrumental" understanding and "relational" understanding of mathematics. Basically, the difference is knowing rules and tricks (instrumental) and having a broader understanding of number (relational.)The problem with instrumental being that a rule may work for one problem but what if it's changed slightly - you then need a whole new one.

It may be that your son has learned the rules and tricks but doesn't have a fuller cognitive understanding of number, which tends to show up in mental maths especially. I would suggest encouraging lots of talking about maths and doing sums on paper in a way that he's comfortable with, and eventually he will (probably- in theory!) move on to mental short-cuts himself.

(All of the above comes with an "I'm Only Training" disclaimer. More experienced people feel free to completely debunk the above...)

On re-reading that maybe I should have emphasised more: TALK about maths. Encourage lots of questions and creative thinking - it has the potential to be a really exciting, creative subject (something that I'm just getting to grips with myself - hated maths at school!)

Could you get him to see his workings in his head?

This sometimes helps me if I forget a list of shopping for example. I can see what I wrote and then remember...

Doing lots and lots of examples and saying them out loud again and again. Drilling basically. Getting him to talk you through how you could work out an answer to a question?

Not sure of any of this helps..

Thanks for this feedback. He seems to use different techniques, inlcuding visualising things but clearly favours talking aloud to another adult about what he's doing. talking seems to help him most in his thinking processes.

I am virtually dyscalculic - although this didn't exist in my day - and have always been anxious about Maths and get muddled easily. so it's hard to help him really.

I'm trying to do simple maths games with him and he can be better than I am at times but can't work to speed and isn't consistent.

He's never sure of himself, even when he IS correct about some maths procedure - constantly doubts himself and is v bad also at word problems. He seems to find it hard to convert the info. from words to figures.

Does anyone know if these difficulties could be categorised into a diagnosis?

Is he a very visual learner? Sometimes they can have more difficulties with mental maths if they haven't got anything visual to "hook" onto. If I were teaching him, I'd do loads of very visual maths with equipment ( base 10 equipment cuisenaire rods or whatever) and then slowly progress to see if he could do the same operations by picturing the equipment in his head.