Learning Math has always been complicated for adults and children, as it’s known for its huge numbers of rules and hard to be applied in real life.
This caused most people to have trauma from this subject, and as a result, math difficulties became more and more common. However, this is not true, Math is not just a bunch of theories that you have to memorise and apply.
On the contrary, this subject can be applied in real life and can be found in everything around us.
So, in this article, we will speak about the Math difficulties that most people suffer from. How to deal with it, and what are the main causes for these math difficulties?
What are math difficulties?
Math difficulties are the problems that students face when they are studying math.
Many people call this issue dyscalculia, which is a syndrome for children who have a problem or it is hard for them to understand math.
Dyscalculia is the difficulty to absorb information, understanding, analysing, or even applying the rules or the conditions of math.
It is hard for the children who suffer from it to understand even the basics of math equations like addition and subtraction, and as a result, they can’t get multiplication, and division easily.
In these cases, most of the students suffer from Math difficulties, especially in knowing how to apply it.
Sometimes the old specific methods that are used with the students become useless, as these methods have nothing to do with the real-life world.
That’s why in today’s world, more equipped and visual methods are used to help the students understand easier than before, and to know how to apply it.
These methods are more interactive and allow the students to understand the formula from different angles, and at the same time how to apply it in real life, and how to recognise these models.
Math learning difficulties
Math is considered a highly mental subject, so in order to get it, you need to be highly focused.
And due to some elements, math difficulties appear, and let’s take a look at some of them:
- Math is a highly mentally triggered subject, it’s not just about a rule and how to apply it, which causes many children to dislike it.
- Strict methods are used by the teacher to explain the topics.
Regardless of the student’s different way of thinking, different mental capabilities, and preferences.
- As a result, a gap between the student and understanding of the rule has been created.
- Due to the strict ways of explaining, the students get psychological stress, as they think that they have weaker mental capabilities, which enlarges the gap between the students and the math subject.
- The ages we live in now are different from before, and more developed, especially with the emergence of technology.
As a result, the teachers don’t follow the modern technological methods, and tools that allow a better understanding for the students, and easier to deliver the information.
- Due to the technical era that we live in.
Most of the fields were changed and improved, however, this improvement and change weren’t supported by the teachers, regarding the materials, tools, and methods.
As many teachers weren’t guided or taught, governments should seek to teach the teachers all about these new changes, and how to deal with them.
How to deal with math difficulties
As we mentioned before, math difficulties nowadays are becoming more and more common, however, it decreases with the right usage of technology and real-life application.
Nowadays methods allow or care to make the students use their minds, and apply all they learned in real life, or play games that can hone their mathematical skills.
One of the problems that we have in math is that we are convinced with the idea that we must study it in the form of paper and a pen, but math is an applicable subject so we can find more interactive forms to study it.
And since math difficulties are becoming more and more serious, let’s explain the advantages of studying math at El-Madrassah.com:
- Your child can have the classroom 100% online, so it would be easier for them.
- The class timings are flexible, so you can choose the times that suit you.
- The class is separated, which means that the students deal directly with the instructor.
- The instructors are qualified and experienced.
- Creating a plan that can suit each child individually.
- The material will help the children achieve the highest target they seek.
- The math course on Elmadrasah.com will not only teach the children math to support their studies but also the fundamentals of the subject, how to solve math difficulties, and how to deal with them according to a well-developed plan.
- Letting the students deal with their classmates and establishing a brainstorming environment which will allow them to build better logic and basics of the subject.
Let’s take a look at some points on how to deal with math difficulties:
- Using games that require using math, like counting something, playing games that have numbers, and require doing some math, like domina and dice.
- You can make your child count everything around you in the street or at home.
- Joining your child in the financial interactions, like going to the market, counting the money before and after coming back, and applying the basics in their everyday life.
- Practice makes perfect, so the more you make your child use their brain the easier it will be.
- Try to search for the methods that your child can understand it or the methods that are suitable for them, according to their capabilities and preferences.
Factors that cause math difficulties
Math is a highly brain-focused subject, and many people accuse other people who don’t like math to have weak brains or lesser mental capabilities.
And it became common that only those who are intelligent at math are intelligent in real life, regardless of their success in other fields.
As a result, this caused children to doubt themselves, even if they don’t like math, they will feel like they lack the mind, or are not qualified enough, and society reflected this kind of image.
Forcing the students to understand the topic in one specific way of teaching, and questioning their abilities if they didn’t understand.
The lack of the necessary tools and materials to explain the topic more profoundly.
The lack of training courses for the teachers to guide them and train them according to the new curriculums and methods.
Reasons for math difficulties in children
Math difficulties can be caused due to different aspects:
- The lack of the necessary material and tools.
- The lack of variances in the methods that should be used by the teachers.
- Limiting the studying to only a paper and pen form, away from being interactive.
- The lack of teacher training to understand the new plans.
Effective methods for overcoming math difficulties
The age we live in now allowed us to access more data in no time and within our homes, so math difficulties also can be decreased at a deep level if we followed some tips:
- Using interactive games, and methods in general.
- Entering math in our everyday applications.
- Using modern methods that are suitable for children.
- Creating the right plan for each child to achieve the target that suits them, so they don’t get frustrated.
- Practicing the basics as much as possible.
And at the end of our article, we spoke about the major math difficulties that most children suffer from, and how to solve them.