Year 1 child struggling with maths despite strong phonics, any advice?

[Dobbysocks]

6 year old in year 1. Amazing at phonics and well ahead with this. Really struggling with maths. Finds basic adding and subtracting confusing. Counting in multiples of 2s, 5s and 10s even worse. Fine with the word problems and shapes. Have tried every day maths when cooking, playing, lots of number games, number blocks tv. Nothing seems to help him. I’m really worried he’s going to fall behind. School have said he’s not where expected at this stage for maths.

Dreading this term where division and multiplication will be added in.

Any advice? Anyone have a similar picture in year 1 and then it got easier as time went on? We do as much as we can at home weekly but I don’t want to go down the route of a tutor with such a little one. (Which is what was suggested by school)

Is this directed at me, or the first reply on tge thread? You've quoted me, but I thought I was helping?

If he is having trouble with number bonds then before you practice these make sure he’s secure with the underlying concepts. The website quoted by the pp goes through the stages before number bonds - ordering, subitising, partitioning etc. Make sure he’s confident with these, then have another go at number bonds.

I learned most of my early maths by seeing the problems so we’d have money, counters etc and being able to see 2 counters plus 3 etc helped me massively, I have dyscalculia as do 2 of my sons and visual learning has been much easier. They are only Y1 so might just be off to a confusing start and get better with confidence and age. But make it fun, I remember a teacher taking me outside we measured stuff. Used money in a ‘virtual shop’ baked etc wasn’t like learning at all.

Get him playing with Lego constantly

OP I am in a similar position with our 5yo (also Yr 1). In fact I posted a thread about it on here a few weeks ago after parents' evening. I got lots of good advice from posters. You're not alone!

If it were me, I would go back to basic 1-10 additions + and then later subtractions.

I feel like often children who struggle with maths, have missed the foundational learning, and then get very stuck when the sums get harder and the numbers get bigger.

Get something that he can use to build the maths sums. (I used magentic blocks for my son, like these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ToyUnited-Magnetic-Building-Blocks-Montessori/dp/B0DQGR47MY/ref=sr_1_6?crid=1NFJXAT2PNGBZ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.NtAasZhdREX0_-xuH2K67jZdUMuDah8gFJpCBtnlL-lfNAtjGWgLDMhWehHK2UUqU6z7yZ4zWIXupmuPKoc1vj-XlGYg1R2DbWKMQ3lIBE-nUSaFiXl9p2SF2tAmYP4I5QF3nkV0YhbO3jEX-cLt9zGCiAtZD9u_JYlauBUW3WYUXPf4W7JFI2wBl4nCjXErWwh7geoPThLl8NNrYxBhkR6ow-kTUtlpHN6FRUl3RXpc0TbqhpKT0Cco2gfJglb9qs_ZWyj0K08kGvJQKDzxu1ANyvAopmgaomffKl0pF-4.Vi--gvtN4OhXi4QumVqs6s7rkLlWegqfSc7-QFQjKlU&dib_tag=se&keywords=magnetic%2Bmaths%2Bblocks&qid=1777262885&sprefix=magnetic%2Bmath%2Caps%2C780&sr=8-6&th=1 )

Then start from scratch again. 10 minutes before bed, every night.

Following an order like this:

1, Counting with pointing
2, Recognizing numbers without counting (e.g. 4 cubes in a square, being able to quickly see 3, etc.
3, Addition combinations up to 5. (1+1, 2+1, 2+2, 2+3)
4, Addition combinations up to 8
5, Addition combinations up to 10
Then subtraction up to 10,
Then adding 10s
Then adding numbers that go over 10s
Then adding small to big numbers
etc. etc.

Slowly building, but only moving on to the next step when he can do the previous one easily and confidently without struggling.

If you have a hard time motivating him each night, build in a star/reward chart, that he can add to to earn a treat each time he gets a few sums right.

Then just be patient and don't try and rush it.

Playing shops can help - you could set up a market stall, maybe get a toy cash register. Games like monopoly (at that age my kids had a version for younger children called dogopoly), pairs/snap (good for spotting patterns), card games, orchard toys games. Sharing out chocolate buttons or smarties in portions (half, quarter, thirds). Playing with stem toys generally- smart toys are particularly good for developing that side of the brain. Also magnet tiles.

Discalculia is a learning need which your child might have. It's completely separate to language learning. A child with discalculia will struggle with maths the way a dyslexic child will struggle with phonics.
Is there anyone in your family, Op, who struggled with maths in school and maybe still does?

Honestly this sounds completely normal for Y1 and not something to panic about. Phonics is rule-based and clicks all at once. Number sense builds in layers and some children just take longer — it's not a sign of anything wrong.
Two things that really helped here. First, get a free printable 100 square and let him colour in the 2s, 5s and 10s on separate copies. He'll see the pattern before he can recite it, which is the right way round. Second, drill number bonds to 10 until they're automatic — little car games, "I say 7, you say…?" If those aren't fluent, everything else feels like wading through treacle.
Don't worry about multiplication and division this term — Y1 introductions are very gentle, basically just sharing sweets between teddies. He'll be fine if his addition is solid.
Honest opinion — a tutor at 6 is overkill. What matters far more is 10 minutes a day, every day, rather than long weekend sessions. Phonics-strong-maths-shaky is a really common profile and almost always evens out by Y3/Y4 with consistent low-pressure practice. He's six, he has time.

ds or dd? Just my opinion, so don’t all jump on me, but I’ve noticed girls are a little bit behind with maths (based on my two and their friends) until around year 3 then suddenly everything clicks and they’re flying.

Good ideas above. Games are really good for Maths. Orchard Games, shops, snakes and ladders are all good.

Number bonds to 10 - put 10 counters in a shoe box lid with a line drawn down the middle. Take turns shaking the lid and cover half the lid with a teatowel so you can see how many counters are on one side. "Guess" how many counters are on the other side.

A nice counting activity is to get a metal money box and drop coins in while the child counts with a blindfold on (or eyes shut). Drop the coins at regular intervals and in groups eg 1, 2, 3 ...4, 5 ......6...7,8,9. Hearing the coins drop is really good for one to one correspondence. You can also check if they are skip- counting or really associating the numbers with the quantity.

Sharing sweets fairly with multiple children and /or teddies is very effective as children spot unfairness very easily! Can also talk about one more/one less etc.

Has she memorised how to say 'one, two, three, four, five' as a sound sequence or grasped that 1 = 1, 2 = 1 + 1, 3 = 1 + 1 + 1 and so on?
I had a similar problem at that age and it turned out I hadn't grasped the fundamental principle that 1 = 1. 'One' is one thing, not just a sound.

We started with adding things like smarties and pasta things on her plate- if we had blueberries can you make (x number).. We also played the bfg maths game, and used playing cards to look at number bonds to 5 (used ace as 1, 2,3 4,5) and wrote the number bonds on a piece of card to help match them.... When she mastered number bonds to 5 we then did to 10....
We basically did adding with everything we could

He’s only in year 1, I wouldn’t worry. The important thing is enjoying school.

Ds. But he’s had the linguistic fluency of a teenage girl since he was about two so maybe you’re onto something 😂

Have you tried getting him to teach someone else? My daughter was similar hated being taught, hated worksheets, but the moment she had to explain something to someone else, it clicked. I've been building something around this a voice character who's rubbish at maths and asks the child for help, harnessing the power of AI in a safe way. My 6-year-old corrects him, laughs at him, and doesn't realise she's practising. Happy to share more if you're interested! Sneak Peak here meetleo.co.uk

So familiar. Our DS (15 now) was racing ahead with reading at that age but maths just didn't click for him until much later. The thing nobody tells you is that being good with words doesn't predict being good with numbers, they actually use quite different bits of the brain, and a 6 year old who's flying through phonics can absolutely be the same kid who finds 4 plus 3 confusing. It's not a sign anything's wrong, it's just the order things click for them.

What helped us at that age was making the maths feel less serious. Anything where it was a game first and a maths exercise second, baking and weighing things, board games (Snakes and Ladders is brilliant for number-line sense), playing shop with real coins. The school-style worksheets just put him off. Once we stopped trying to "teach" him and let him bump into numbers in play, the formal maths started to land on its own. By 7 or 8 he was caught up.

Apps that gamify properly can do the same job in a different format. My DH is a software engineer and has actually built a maths app for kids called mathstutor.me (full disclosure since it's relevant), but the bigger point applies whichever app you pick: look for one that scales the difficulty back down when they get something wrong rather than just marking it red and moving on. That's the bit that protects their confidence at this age. DoodleMaths does it too, and there are free trials on most of them so you can let your DD try a couple and pick whichever one she actually wants to open.

Honestly though at 6 the most important thing is keeping it low pressure. The maths will come.

My mother has something called discalcular (I think that is how you spell it). She’s very clever in every other way but maths never stuck. She had to retake her math for something to do with work. She really struggled. She found out during this it wasn’t her fault. I’ve never heard of it but I would say it’s worth looking at. When I went to college a girl in my class really struggled with math and I wonder to this day is she like my mother. She couldn’t do basic math but did well with her rest of the course.

This is an excellent suggestion. 6 is a great age to learn an instrument- keyboards are brilliant for applying patterns.

DD1 is in year 1 and they use an app called doodle maths. She really enjoys solving the questions on their and getting the reward stars that you can use to “buy” parts for your robot.
it starts off with base questions to give a base level of where the child is at and works from there.

she also loves watching number blocks as it doesn’t feel like learning while watching it.

have you spoken to the teacher to ask if they have suggestions as to how you can help build his confidence when it comes to maths? Rather than just “hire a tutor”

DC1 was not good at maths until y6. They got an Astar in maths A-Level.

Keep up with what are doing and it will come.

Hi - I would offer slightly different advice than that detailed above (grizzled SEN mum).

What you’re describing is a relative delay (ignore Hardgarden) which is can be normal development but also can be an early sign of something like dyscalculia - it depends how it all shakes out.

For now, I would use your time at home to work out exactly where your DS is with Maths and pre-Maths (google pre-Maths. The UK has all but abandoned it which is half the problem). Have a look at IB PYP resources for Kindergarten (which is the same as Y1).

In the home environment, see how his grasp of foundational numeracy is doing. If you have five satsumas and you give him one, how many are left? Can he anticipate this looking at the five satsumas? My DD with dyscalculia could not do this at 6, my neurotypical DD who is good at maths could do this at 2 or 3 (can’t remember, ticked that box and moved on). If you have four biscuits and everyone in the family gets one (adjust for size of your family), can they anticipate how many everyone will get?

Can he identify shapes? Can he draw a line of symmetry?

School from here on in will be a blizzard of rote learning but if he’s slow to the foundations, he will always struggle. My strong advice to you is to find where he is, and follow your own path at home. There’s no escaping times tables at that age and you’ll probably have to do a bit of that, but long term the most important thing you can do is help lay those foundations.

@BoyMumNurse makes a great point about the board games - I’d forgotten. Orchard Toys’ Bus Stop is a good one.

So interesting! And just shows that they shouldn’t write off being ‘bad at maths’.

Yes to shaped and lines. No to the quantifying of objects visually or anticipation of numbers in those scenarios.