Removing Fear Of Math In Children
The fear of math is one of the major issues that many students face. In quite a few cases; this particular fear escalates into full-blown panic attacks displaying physical symptoms.
Thus, teachers and parents need to take this problem seriously and initiate measures to resolve it. Or else, the phobia could lead to unwanted consequences in children risking their intellectual and emotional growth.
This article is going to elaborate on some ways in which the fear of this subject can be eliminated in pupils.
- Firstly, it is of utmost importance that teachers/parents accept this as a genuine fear that is not at all abnormal. The same point should be communicated to the children in a friendly way. This makes sure that the students do not feel uncomfortable and awkward with their phobia. The children will then develop a good mindset for learning mathematics.
- As math phobia subjects students to intense stress, they must be encouraged to perform breathing exercises. These exercises work as excellent antidotes to tension.
- Seek out alternative methods to strengthen the concepts and teaching mental maths so that children gain confidence to learn more things in math. Vedic maths or vedik mathematics tricks could be one such way to do computations in effortless manner.
- Teachers must make an effort to find out why the pupil feels so panicky about mathematics. They should pinpoint the primary reason behind the fear. It’s only then that educators are going to be in a position to take appropriate steps, to remove fear of math from the child’s mind.
- Kids scared of math have to be kept away from tests with stringent time limits. Otherwise, the pressure to solve mathematical problems in a short span only aggravates the phobia! A relaxed and flexible ambiance has to be provided to students with math fear.
- Teachers and parents have to motivate the students to practice a lot for bettering their mathematical abilities. In this respect, educators have to be extremely careful. The pupil should never feel that they are being pressurized to answer questions in math. Here, teachers need to persevere with plenty of patience. After all, this is something related to the career of the child!
- One more wonderful way to address the issue is to make mathematics an enjoyable activity. When kids having this fear are directly asked to solve problems, they will just get stressed out. Instead, they should be made to play games that involve elements of mathematics. With this, math skills improve and the kids are not even aware that it is mathematics that they are learning through these games.
The more such games that children play, the sooner they will become comfortable with the fundamentals of the subject. Once the comfort level is reached, students can start working on math topics and problems present in their textbooks.
- Whenever any pupil wrongly answers a math problem, many teachers commit the mistake of ridiculing them in front of the whole class. That has a devastating effect on the child’s confidence and self-esteem. Teachers have to shun such extreme methods! They have to be considerate and amicable to the kids. We must encourage them by saying things like “everyone makes these mistakes in the beginning; nothing wrong with that.”
The above points need to be scrupulously followed. After that, it won’t be too long before the student conquers the fear of mathematics and becomes a “math lover.”
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