Reasons Why Kids Hate Math
Have you ever had one of your kids come to you and say “I hate math!” For many students, it seems pointlessly complicated, hard to understand, or maybe just plain boring. But there are some underlying reasons why some students have an aversion to math (and ways to make it more fun & achievable!)
So What Are the Underlying Reasons Why Some Students Hate Math?
While there are a variety of skills at play, weaknesses in these key areas are almost always behind struggles with math:
Weak Logic & Reasoning
All math is rooted in logic. It’s problem-solving, following logical steps to get to a final answer. When kids struggle with logic & reasoning skills, they have trouble knowing what the best next step should be. They may struggle to recognize patterns or know when to apply certain things that they’ve learned.
Read More: Build Math Confidence with These Fun Math Games!
Lack of Visual Processing Skills
Visual processing skills are essentially your brain’s ability to envision without seeing. For math, this skill is essential for grasping numerical concepts, manipulating shapes or patterns, and more. For students with weak visual processing, they hear a simple math problem like 3+4 and just think “numbers” instead of envisioning three items + 4 items.
These students may also struggle with key math concepts such as rounding, comparisons, fractions, geometry, and more.
Slow Retrieval Fluency
Lots of students “hate math” because it takes a long time. And for many of them, the reason could be slow retrieval fluency. Essentially, this is the inability to recall math facts (or formulas and other key pieces of information) with automaticity. These students rely on fingers or visual aids every time they complete a math problem instead of having some of the basics firmly automatic in their brain.
Math is not fun if every time you do a problem, you have to struggle with pulling these basic facts and concepts!
Poor Long-Term Memory
Along with slow retrieval fluency, weak long-term memory can be a big hurdle for many students. When you think about a mathematical operation such as adding fractions, for example, consider all the different pieces of information that need to be quickly accessed:
- What is a fraction?
- How do we add fractions with different denominators (and what is a denominator anyway)?
- How do we find the least common multiple of the denominators?
- Ok, now that you have that number what do you need to do to get the equivalent fractions?
And on it goes… and this is just for one type of problem. Students with long term memory struggles have to refresh this basic knowledge every time they see it instead of having some of these concepts and steps become automatic.
You may read this and think, “they just need more practice!”
Yes, that is one way to make math skills come more automatically, but for kids who struggle with memory (or any of the other skills listed above), whenever the next level comes or the next concept is introduced, the process begins again.
Instead of just accepting that your kid is not a “math person” or that they’re just going to “hate math” and get through it, what if you could help them build the skills they need to have to make math more achievable and (dare we say it) enjoyable?
Targeting the root cause of their struggle with math and building from there is the most efficient and effective way to make these skills become stronger, faster, and better.
