Maths Phobia in children is rarely talked about and not widely understood.

It’s easier to detect in adults. If you get 20 people in a room and said we are now going to do some maths or suggest a maths game. At least 2 of them will get sweaty palms, say they are not good at maths, begin to feel anxious or at worst panicky and need to escape as soon as they can.

This is a phobia reaction, the pattern of behaviour we would expect to see if a person was phobic about spiders or heights. However, if you ask a maths phobic adult when their fear started, they will describe when they were at school, and how they felt as a child at school. Some adults can even express the exact moment it started. Yet children are unable to articulate what is happening.

How to detect the maths phobia is to look and see if your child tries to escape from the situation. Do they have days off sick before a maths test, or days when they have more maths lessons? Do they get anxious easily on maths days? Then there are the children who constantly get in trouble with the maths teacher for their classroom behaviour, but they don’t have the same behaviour in all their other classes or with other teachers. Your child might also say they find the maths easy, and they are bored in class, but their test results don’t reflect they find the maths easy at all.

Our specialist maths tutors know how to work with Maths phobia and remove the fear. We can help your child not be so reactive and help increase their confidence and ability with it.

Do get in touch if you think your child might be afraid of maths.