7 year old struggling with Maths

[Immigrantsong]

My 7 year old Dd is in yr2 and struggling with Maths. I have finally managed to get school to assess her as their reports were always presenting her as doing well and she is indeed behind in some areas. She is also going to get referred for further assessments for autism and learning difficulties. But Maths seems to be her weakest topic. She has no concept of number and struggles to count up or down in 2s for example. How can I help her? I have invested in workbooks and computer programs and work with her, but don't see any progress. It is also getting me really frustrated as I can't see her getting any better at basics.

She is still very young, so I would just try and get her to understand the concept through showing her numbers via objects. Two socks counting up in pairs etc. My daughter was the same and I realised the more I pushed the more frustrated and sad my daughter became. Try and weave it into your daily lives rather than through books and apps. Makes it less stressful and she will get it - dont worry!

1:1 tuition?
One of our primary teachers did maths tuition for children. Helps build their confidence when the rest of the class aren’t listening. Also children know when parents are feeling frustrated so 1:1 with someone else can really help.

Get a 100square chart and a time table chart and whenever you get a chance count forward and backwards with her in a fun way. Same with times tables, do take cues from her though , if you think she is getting tired/irritable stop and try again after a few days. 10 min maths are fantastic books so you could buy some of them. I am aware she is in Y2 however I would suggest you to try the reception and Y1 books, she may find them easy and they will help her confidence immensely at the same time you will know where she is struggling and in turn you will be able to help her better. understanding amd explaining concept at this age in fun way will be interesting for her. Oak national academy has year wise classes you could look them up too. An above all don't worry too much soon her teacher will tell you her strengths and would also raise concerns if necessary. The most important thing according to me is that children like and enjoy what they do at school and eventually land where their heart desires

Like Catherine I would go for more counting physical objects. Children spend less time manipulating physical objects in maths these days than they used to before the national curriculum changes - they seem to be skipped on quicker to abstracting it.

We liked pasta spirals for some reason, or you can use those clicky cubes or numicon or little counting bears, or Galt giant buttons or normal buttons or flowerpots or toy unicorns. Whatever you can find a few of. If she loves tiny things or shiny things, use those. Physically show her 6+2, 4-2 etc, then get her to do it, and work up to counting in 2s.

Also Sum Swamp is a surprisingly good game.

I agree with using maths in everyday tasks - ask her to count how long you can hold your breath for, how many big steps is it to your front door, sort a packet of jelly babies (they don't melt like buttons) into piles so everyone gets the same number - how many will mummy get if she eats one of hers? Make it fun and part of everyday living. Good luck.

We got this

www.whizz.com/

about 4 years ago for our son who was struggling in Maths. About 1 year later we also got it for our other son who is usually top of the class in maths.
It is great for all abilities as you do a baseline assessment and then it moves you in from where you started.
There is teaching and assessment throughout and you don't move on until you understand it.

It has been great through COVID as they have continued to progress. I haven't done any other maths during lockdown apart from Maths Whizz.