Tag: Maths Anxiety

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Making a connection

Making a connection

Posted on by judy

These delightful little drawings were done for me on our BitPapers, by a 9-year-old pupil who I have now been teaching online for a month. She came to me with severe Maths Anxiety and was unable to cope with Maths at her school. She was deep into a cycle of anxiety. A couple of sessions in, she is laughing, joking, and happily drawing me pictures and engaging well with our Maths lesson. A complete change in her feelings towards maths in less than a month!

What magic have I managed to do, you may well be asking? No magic, just loads of empathy and other strategies which help bring down the anxiety and the barriers to learning and have enabled her to start to enjoy Maths and learning again. 

Top tips for supporting poor Working Memory

Top tips for supporting poor Working Memory

Posted on by judy

So, now you know that Working Memory is a big issue for most people who are Neurodiverse, what can you do to help?
Knowing that someone will find it harder than average to listen and to hold onto information and then manipulate numbers or words or ideas in their heads, there are many ways to mitigate this issue, and none of them are particularly complicated. Some strategies are done by adding in extra senses to support poor Working Memory and bring down the Cognitive Load or by giving them extra time to think. As the brain can learn and change, what we call Neuroplasticity, we can add strategies that help improve the Working Memory too.
A few minor adjustments will make so much difference to that child you are teaching or colleague or client you are working with.

Maths anxiety or snake anxiety?

Maths anxiety or snake anxiety?

Posted on by judy

Snakes. Who loves snakes? Certainly not me! I have always been scared and rather phobic about them, and I can feel my heart beating faster at the mere thought.
But this afternoon, I spent about 30 minutes discussing snakes: species, ways of caring for them and breeding them. This did not put me in my comfort zone at all!
However, my Neurodiverse, highly Maths Anxious, and chronically disengaged pupil absolutely loves snakes and has three of them!
My role is so much more than just delivering Maths content; it is about empowering children to feel better about themselves and get themselves in the right mindset to start to learn.
Next lesson, I am sure she will be less anxious and will be able to trust me, relax and be more able to engage with her learning. So half an hour of snake talk for me will have been more than worth it!

New Group Lessons

New Group Lessons

Posted on by judy

What do Neurodiverse children often love and excel in? Art, creativity and science… Therefore the concept of offering small group lessons to children with similar learning differences but not necessarily exactly the same age was born. Topic-based lessons full of fun! Each session focusing on practical enrichment activities that inspire and encourage children to think, problem-solve and above all, understand the ‘hows? and whys?’