Going backwards in year 1 - any ideas?

[ArcticLemming]

My DD sailed through reception but has found yr 1 harder. Her reading is fine, but we were told she was struggling with maths earlier in the year and asked to do mental maths practice with her. She improved dramatically over a period of about 6 weeks, and the school also said this - I was hoping things had just "clicked". However she seems to have gone backwards - she's actually struggling to do things she did with ease a few months ago and has become inaccurate and inconsistent whe doing fairly simple sums (e.g. double digit plus single digit numbers)- she had got the the stage she was very reliable. She seems to need constant reminding of how to work out things using a pattern - e.g. adding or subtracting 10 which a few months ago she was doing with ease. Is this normal? I'm worried her confidence will suffer. Any thoughts or ideas welcome.

Was she using objects, a number line or a number square a few months ago? Give her a number square to work out her sums in now. She'll soon stop using it when it starts slowing her down.

No she was doing it in her head. I gaqve her a number square the other day and to be honest she was pretty sloppy with it and kept making mistakes.

Don't worry, keep calm and redo the sums for a few minutes until she does each one properly. Then leave it for a couple of days. Then do the same sums again. She'll soon pick it up again. Promise rewards too. If she knows how to do it you don't have an understanding problem, you've got a motivation problem. I find bribery always works.

Interestingly she suggested to me that bribrary might help! We've set up a star chart system with a reward!
Thanks for the ideas.

I think this is reasonably common. They move onto a new skill and "forget" the old one. I would keep reinforcing the "old stuff" but not worry too much - it will all still be there!