Math Anxiety Sneaks In
Have you ever said “I am not a math person” or “I’m not good at math”? It’s so common to hear! Unfortunately, comments like these influence children’s perception of their own math ability … and consequently hinders their future math skills too.
Because some parents lack confidence in their own math skills, they have also unwittingly influenced their children’s own math perception and interest in math with comments like these. A number of studies have shown that, “in the math and science arena, parents' perceptions of their children's abilities as well as their own values about math and science are related to their children's later self-perceptions and values for achieving in these domains…”
“when parents are more math anxious, their children learn significantly less math over the school year and have more math anxiety by the school year's end…”
- Maloney, E. A. et al., 2015
Too many children enter kindergarten already behind in math. The intergenerational transmission of low math achievement and high math anxiety just from a parents’ own perception of math is a crucial factor.
“As math anxiety, particularly about math-related situations, was related to arithmetic fluency even as early as the second grade, children's negative feelings and math anxiety should be identified and addressed from the early primary school years.”
- Sorvo, R. et al., 2017
Assuring that parents and caregivers are comfortable with math and problem-solving activities is one way to support children’s developing math identities and skills. We can start with noticing our thoughts and comments about our own math skills. Just reading this makes you a math person! And playing with ThinkPlayful makes math foundations fun - enjoy!
References:
Maloney, E. A., Ramirez, G., Gunderson, E. A., Levine, S. C., & Beilock, S. L. (2015). Intergenerational Effects of Parents' Math Anxiety on Children's Math Achievement and Anxiety. Psychological science, 26(9), 1480–1488. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615592630
Sorvo, R., Koponen, T., Viholainen, H., Aro, T., Räikkönen, E., Peura, P., Dowker, A., & Aro, M. (2017). Math anxiety and its relationship with basic arithmetic skills among primary school children. The British journal of educational psychology, 87(3), 309–327. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12151