dd is 10 but has major maths difficulties (she is dyslexic but i am pretty convinced is actually more dyscalculic) Anyway - she has never grasped place value - we have spent housrs with blocks / rods etc explaining how 10 units because 1 ten etc etc...would get teh occasional "lightbulb" moment then next day it was gone. So tried again but this time rather than changing 10 small things into 1 big thing I put the 10 small things into a sandwich bag - so she coudl see the 10 "units" were there but were now counted as 1 thing. What a difference! She was able to quickly understand that if we then divided eg 60 between 4 that we would get an answer that wouldn't be in whole 10s and there woudl be something in the units column. It was absolutely brilliant! I appreciate I am probably pointing out something to experienced teachers which is really obvious - but to anyone else with a struggling child it may help..