Hi, Nicola.

There are many children who do struggle with mental maths. One of my kids has memory deficiency. So, saying an equation out loud and then having him solve everything in his head was simply too difficult for him. After just a few seconds, he could not even remember the numbers in the equation.

What I ended up doing was adjusting how this concept was presented and helped my son think through the process. Here is what I did:

First of all, I wrote the equation on the board.

Next, I would ask him what the first step in solving the problem was. If he completely drew a blank, I would remind him of whatever strategy applied to the equation. For example, if the equation had a '9' in it, I would circle the '9' and say, couldn't we use the Nine's Strategy (We actually called it the Magic 9). If there was a number like '49' or '99' included in the equation, I would circle that number and say, hey this number looks close to another number that would be much easier to add....what would that be? These guided questions helped my son learn how to think through the equation and eventually solve it.

There did come a time when he would come across certain equations and be able to think through the process and solve the equation. But until then, I just helped guide him through the thought process.

This was a good exercise for my son to do. Because of his memory deficiency, he has a hard time following more than one or two steps. This activity helped stretch his mind to allow for two or three steps.

That being said, these activities also drained my son's mental energy. So, we couldn't work through more than one - maybe two a day. Otherwise, he would not be able to learn any new material.

My suggestion to you would be to 'push' your daughter to continue to learn, but not past her ability/energy to do so. Keep working through the concepts she is struggling with by providing opportunities for her to practice. There are some math card games that you can use to help strengthen up her maths skills. A30 - Eights Memory will help your daughter work on the eights strategy.

Another game that you can modify is the Addition War game. If your daughter is struggling with adding '7' to a number, you can play Addition War with the 7 (or 8) card as a static card. Each player will turn over only one card and add that number to the 7 (or the 8). I did this with my kids and had excellent results!

In the meantime, don't get stuck on this maths skill. Many children do struggle with mental maths. Don't linger on her maths education because of this once concept. You can continue moving forward and practice mental maths as you go.

I will be forwarding your question to Dr. Cotter. If she has any additional thoughts regarding your daughter, I will be sure to include her comments in a future response.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to post them here. Or you can email RightStart Math directly at info@rightstartmath.com.

Have a great day!
Rachel