Reduce math anxiety in children with DD by improving math achievement early through targeted interventions¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The authors recommend that as educators appreciate the role of math anxiety, interventions reducing it should become part of the math educational system, and suggest "one of the most effective ways to reduce math anxiety is to improve math achievement from an early age through interventions focused on children with DD". Such programs would help students cope with the frustrations inherent in learning mathematics and thereby improve math achievement, turning the failure-fear-failure cycle into success-confidence-success.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Interventions must be focused on children with DD and start from an early age

Constraints¶

• The recommendation rests on the assumption that DD is an innate condition, and on Hembree's finding that cognitive-behavioral interventions for math anxiety positively influenced math achievement test scores

Target Learners¶

• children with developmental dyscalculia in early schooling

Target Learning Goals¶

• reducing math anxiety and improving math achievement

Related Strategies¶

• Reduce math anxiety by addressing the anxiety rather than training math alone
• Monitor children's math anxiety from the earliest stages of schooling to support proficient math performance
• Start early: foster a positive math climate at home and school to prevent the distal avoidance pathway
• Design interventions that address mathematical and motivational/socioemotional dimensions concurrently

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Rubinsten O, Tannock R. (2010). Mathematics anxiety in children with developmental dyscalculia. Behavioral and Brain Functions 6:46. http://www.behavioralandbrainfunctions.com/content/6/1/46