Any KS1 teachers around?

[iggy155]

I hope somebody can put my mind at rest. My DD has just turned 6 and is in Yr1. She is making progress in her reading and writing but I'm a bit worried about her maths. She always writes all numbers back to front. For example if she writes 13 she will write the 1 the wrong way round and the 3 will be back to front. Sometimes she notices the numbers are wrong but most of the time she doesn't. Is this normal at this age? TIA.

I used to be a teacher and this is very common. When she's doing numeracy it might help to give her a number line so she can refer back to the number to help her write it correctly.

Seriously though, very common, don't panic!

Not a teacher but DS used to do this until recently, he's now in Year 2 and it seems to be phasing out finally. He loves maths and has always been in top groups, his teacher didn't seem worried.

Does she swap digits as well as reversing them? DS stopped doing that around when he "got" place value, so maybe talking a bit about how many tens/how many units could help there?

We do try to get him to write out a few the right way round if we notice one the wrong way round. Like with his handwriting, I think part of the problem is in a busy classroom he gets to write it wrong a lot of times and only corrected once or twice, and that reinforces the incorrect shapes.

Thanks so much!

I currently teach year 1 and there are lots of children still doing this. Don't worry, but at the same time do point it out to her and help her to get out of the habit. As Flossiesmummy said, a numberline is very useful for your dd to have in front of her whenever she's writing numbers.