Why Some Struggle with Math and Others Do Not

Think of all the exciting events that took place in 2013 and yet one of the most popular articles (#39 in its Top 100) written by Discover Magazine relates to "Why Some of Us are Better at Math Than Others."

Parents often greet me with "Why is number sense so hard for my child? We sit at the kitchen table every night and it just isn't clicking. I never had this problem as a child. I just don't get it." They are looking for solutions so their child can work more flexibly with numbers and build a foundation for future concepts. According to scientists, some are simply born with it, while others need to work at it.

Researchers from the country's greatest institutions, Duke, Johns Hopkins and Stanford, have been looking at experiences that make enhancing an individual's number sense so that success in higher math skills results.  Direct instruction, with a math tutor or teacher, has proven significant increases in math performance as concepts increase in complexity. That's awesome news and why places like Mathnasium of 4S Ranch is an outstanding option for math tutoring or math support.

Don't be afraid to start building number sense too early. One of the warm up activities we like to do with our younger students at Mathnasium of 4S Ranch is a game called Blink. It is a fast paced card game where you match cards in your hand to the target card in the center pile. You may match it by color, quantity or shape, all great concepts for math. Students "see" the quantities (just like you see a five on the cards pictured above), distinguish attributes of the shape or color, and race to get rid of their cards.

Here is the link to access the article.  A free subscription may be need to view it in its entirety: http://discovermagazine.com/2014/jan-feb/39-some-have-a-head-for-math?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews#.UtlqXLQo6M_