Tips For Parents To Reduce
and Prevent Math Anxiety
Anxiety in mathematics usually begins in late elementary school or middle school and continues to grow as students enter new levels of abstraction and begin to have a wider variety of teachers, textbooks, and learning experiences. Research is showing that comfort with mathematics and success in later years is largely a factor of a student's number sense and the numeracy that is gained in the first few years of education. Working to help your child be comfortable with math begins early and starts with the responsibility to do some research of your own and understand why anxiety happens and what you can do to help.
As a parent, you are the most influential person in your child's life so the things you say and do will have a greater impact than what is said by your child's friends and even by their teachers. Your attitude, your support and encouragement, and your general philosophy is what will impact them the most so we will start by giving you the information you need to better understand the subject of mathematics. Below is a collection of articles and websites that deal with many of the major issues around homework and anxiety. We encourage you to explore and hopefully you will find some tips and tools to help both your child and you to be confident and optimistic when it comes to mathematics.
We suggest a good starting point to be the following literature review articles that do a nice job of summarizing much of the major research that is out there about math anxiety and the big ideas that require our focus.
Summary Article on Math Anxiety Literature and Research
Math Anxiety Literature Review by Dr. Diane Johnson of Humboldt University
(File Download)