If you are the parent of a student who is struggling with some of the concepts in elementary math, take the initiative and ask for help. Talk to your child's teacher to see if she can offer extra help at lunchtime or after school. Talk to the guidance counselor at your child's school to see if there are services in the school that you or your child can benefit from. These may include use of the school's resource room for an hour a day, a math learning center or an educational assistant. Talk to friends or family members who are good at math to see if they can act as tutors. See if there are services in your community that fit your needs, such as Kumon Math Center, Sylvan Learning Center or even a free library program.
If you figure out exactly why your child or student is having difficulty learning math concepts, you may be able to provide helpful adaptations. For example, a learner who has trouble remembering lessons or processing auditory information may benefit from an audio recorder so he can listen to instructions as many times as he likes.
If your student has visual/spatial problems and difficulty aligning equations or writing numbers, providing graph paper or worksheets where she can write numbers inside of orderly boxes may prove beneficial. For a student who often misreads operation signs, assigning one color to plus signs, another color to minus signs, etc., may be successful. Finding a helpful adaption may take several attempts.
Some learners find elementary school math concepts difficult to grasp because they have trouble visually understanding the true measure of a number or an operation. Incorporating manipulatives into a lesson and allowing students to use them when they do independent work allows the students to comprehend math concepts in a hands-on way. For example, if a student is having trouble understanding equivalent fractions, he can hold fraction rectangle strips on top of one another to compare them. If place value is a mystery to the learner, base 10 blocks may be a solution. You can either buy or make your own manipulatives. In addition, the Nova Scotia Department of Education offers some free printable manipulatives that you can cut out. The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives also has online manipulatives that students can experiment with.
As a teacher, tutor or parent, you can help an elementary student with remedial math by organizing interactive activities. These activities will not only help her become more comfortable with math but show her that this daunting subject can also be enjoyable. The United States Department of Education's "Helping Your Child" guide offers ideas for several real-world activities. For example, while you are at the grocery store with your child, tell her that you want her to estimate the cost of all the groceries by rounding off the prices. As you put an item in the cart, round off the price together and have her try to keep track of the total sum. Online math games, such as those on the Cool Math 4 Kids and Online Math Learning websites, as well as math videos such as those on the Future Channel website, can also help a child become more comfortable with problem math areas.