As a parent, it can be frustrating to see your child struggle with their math schoolwork. You do not want their grades to suffer because they continue to make “careless mistakes” on their work. To help your child overcome their math struggles, we first need to identify why they are making such mistakes.
There are three main types of math errors:
1) Careless (is your child rushing through their work and/or not paying attention?)
2) Computational (is your child incorrectly solving basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems?)
3) Conceptual (is your child not understanding the topic being taught?)
There are ways to help reduce Careless and Computational errors. When solving a math problem, encourage your child to slow down and go step-by-step. By taking their time in each step of a math problem, their accuracy will improve, especially when working with multi-digit numbers.
It is also common for students to struggle with word problems. Your child needs to read and interpret the problem carefully. As your child reads through the problem, encourage them to circle key phrases. If they still have doubts about what they are being asked to do, have them read the problem again. By circling key pieces of information as they go through the problem, it is less likely they will lose sight of a key fact along the way.
Conceptual errors, on the other hand, are not “careless mistakes.” In fact, when a student makes these kinds of errors, it reflects a lack of the necessary foundational knowledge to successfully solve the problem. Have your child look at their answer and ask themselves, “Does this answer make sense?”
It is important to identify which kind of mistakes your child is making in order to find a solution that will help them! It is difficult for a math classroom to go back re-teach skills from the previous years that a child never fully understood. In this case, you can seek the help of a skilled Math Instructor that will identify the root cause of your child’s math mistakes and develop a plan just for them!
Mathematical thinking skills go beyond basic computation -- they are the skills that will last with your child forever! If you would like help in identifying any foundational gaps that your child may have, give us a call at (305) 974-1542. We are math experts who have been helping kids strengthen their math skills for decades!
(305) 974-1542
