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)

Thanks to the Doodle Maths recommendations. He’s having a go at it willingly and I’m having to do far less explaining. Feels like he’d actually doing it himself. We’ve gone back to basics starting with the EYFS skills. Let’s hope it helps him a little and builds his confidence up.

My oldest child couldn’t add past 10 without taking her shoes off at this stage in Y1. By the end of Y2 she was level 3 (equivalent of greater depth), and 3 years ago graduated in Economics with a first. She was just slow to get there.

I admit (pfb) to buying a teacher’s guide to Year 1 Maths, which was useful.

I also think she was lucky that expectations were lower then (the NC changed a few years later, and is now much more demanding) - she needed more time on the basic concepts.

It great to hear that you have had a breakthrough. I'm really pleased for both you and I hope this is the springboard he needs to progress.

My son's in Year 4 and the MTC has caused us a lot of stress. The thing that worked for us was 5 minutes of practice every morning before school — short and daily has totally beaten any long sessions at the weekend. We use TT Rockstars at school but for home I print quick worksheets from numblings.com (it's free, no ads, lets you pick which tables to focus on — we hammered the 7s and 8s for weeks). The 6-second time limit is the brutal bit, so practising under loose timing at home helps with the panic. Our daughter is now working through 2s and 5s with this. Might this help? Just starting with 2's or something?

Whilst it might seem very basic, being absolutely secure up to 10 is key. The other kids will be moving on to bigger numbers but he won’t get it, until he understands 10 and under.

The other stumbling block is often the double digit notation. Once you get past 9, that column is full. If you can get that, all the numbers to 99 work.

Counting and rote learning tables do also help. They give automated answers, so help subdue the panic of not knowing. They can be used with other strategies to improve learning.

Since her phonics is so strong, I’d actually try using that strength rather than treating maths as a completely separate kind of learning.
For single-digit addition and subtraction, let her say and remember the facts verbally, almost as she would learn sound patterns in phonics. Once those basic facts are firmly stored, they can gradually support larger addition and subtraction calculations.
I’d take the same approach with multiplication. I’ve compressed the multiplication facts into 36 short verbal lines. If those are remembered first, the child already has the multiplication answers available for direct recall, rather than having to work them out from scratch each time.
For a child who is unusually strong with spoken sounds and phonics but weaker with number facts, I’d be particularly interested in using the stronger verbal pathway to support the weaker numerical one.
If you’d like to see the 36-line version, you can email me at [email protected].

I was gonna say this! It's like saying 'my kid is useless at PE despite being in the top set for Latin.' 😂

Just let him be, he’s 6.

Edited because I appear to have failed on my own comprehension ability and I see you have already tried Numberblocks. Still, I would like to add another vote for persevering with Numberblocks if he would be happy to watch from the start again? Short little episodes that truly give a proper understanding of what numbers are and how they relate to one another, which then builds up. Watch from the beginning so he is starting from a point of reassuring confidence, and also to plug gaps. But then a change you could try is incorporating a physical element: there are physical versions of the blocks you can buy, to reinforce through play (or generic mathlink cubes are an option if you’re on a tighter budget). Developing the little characters and storylines could also appeal to him, especially if he is more language/story-oriented.

I think Numberblocks was the single most transformative thing for my son who was of the same age as yours and very similar - highly linguistic but behind on maths. Now he is at “exceeding expectations” in maths. We had given Numberblocks a go earlier but then in Y1 revisited them and that’s when it clicked.

You could also look at Montessori resources such as their number beads (going up to the cube of a thousand). I think tactile and 3D representation of numbers helps children enormously. I didn’t use these particular ones with my son but have done in the past as a teacher.

Some children just need a bit more time to understand how numbers work. I'd try using physical objects like LEGO bricks, buttons or small toys to show adding and taking away rather than relying too much on worksheets. Also, speak with the school about what specific areas he's struggling with and whether they can offer some extra support. I wouldn't rush into tutoring just yet, but it's worth keeping an eye on his progress.

Five minutes a day sounds much easier to stick with than long practice sessions. I'd start with the 2s, 5s and 10s, then move on to the harder tables once the child feels comfortable. Getting the answers right first and adding a bit of timing later seems like a good way to build confidence without making maths stressful.