When Your Child Is Slow at Math Facts: What to Check Before Speed

Japan’s national curriculum for elementary school uses the same phrase again and again for arithmetic: children should be able to calculate “reliably”. In grade 1 it is adding and subtracting single-digit numbers. In grade 2 it is multiplying single digits with the times tables (MEXT, Course of Study for Elementary Schools, 2017, in Japanese). In the mathematics content, I could not find any wording that asks children to calculate quickly.

Even so, watching a child spend thirty minutes on one worksheet of sums is worrying. This post is about what to look at before speed when a child is slow at arithmetic.

“Slow” is more than one thing

Where the time goes differs from child to child. In my view it is usually one of the following, or a mix.

1. Counting to get the answer. For 8 + 5, the child counts on from 8: “9, 10, 11, 12, 13”. If small sums are quick but anything over 10 is suddenly slow, this is the likely pattern.

2. Shaky number facts. Only the 7 and 8 times tables are slow, or subtraction stalls whenever borrowing is needed. If the child stops in particular places rather than everywhere, this is it.

3. Getting lost in the steps. In column arithmetic, the child pauses over where to write the small carried 1 or which column to start with. Each small calculation is fast, but the whole problem takes long.

4. Writing takes the time. The answer is in their head, but writing the digits neatly is slow. If they are quick when answering out loud, the issue is writing, not calculating.

5. Copying takes the time. When homework means copying problems from a book into a notebook, copying can take longer than calculating.

6. Attention drifts. Each problem is quick, but the total is long. Between problems there is time spent thinking about something else.

What to check before speed

Are the answers right?

The first thing to look at is accuracy, not time. If a child is fast but makes many mistakes, accuracy comes first. If they are slow but always right, they already know how to calculate. What is left is time, and practice shortens that.

Pushing for speed first can lead children to write the first number that comes to mind. Right first, fast later. I think that order is worth keeping.

Where does the child stop?

Next, work out which of the six patterns it is. The easiest way is to sit beside the child and have them solve one or two problems out loud.

• Fingers moving, counting under their breath → 1
• Stopping at certain tables or certain number pairs → 2
• Pausing halfway through column arithmetic, staring at the paper → 3
• Able to say the answer but slow to write it → 4

The adult only watches. If you start teaching halfway, you lose sight of where the child gets stuck.

Practice for each cause

If the child is counting, go back to the pairs that make ten (1 and 9, 2 and 8, 3 and 7, 4 and 6, 5 and 5). Once “how many more to make 10?” comes without counting, addition with carrying gets visibly faster. I wrote about this in How to Teach Carrying and Borrowing (Regrouping).

If times tables are shaky, practise only the tables where the child stops. There is no need to redo all of them. If they can recite a table but are slow to use it, answering in mixed order rather than table order helps. See How to Learn Times Tables: Say Them, Write Them, Use Them.

If the steps are the problem, set speed aside and solve one problem at a time from start to finish in the same order, again and again. Once the steps become habit, the hesitation disappears.

If writing is slow, treat calculation practice and writing practice separately. For calculation practice, answering out loud is fine. If the digits are so untidy that the child has to reread them, writing slowly but legibly usually ends up faster.

If copying is slow, it can help to tell the child that this is separate from calculating. “Your sums aren’t slow. The copying is taking the time.” Just separating the two can take some pressure off.

If attention drifts, reduce the amount. Four sets of 5 problems can take less total time than one set of 20.

Practising without saying “hurry up”

Even when you want more speed, I would avoid saying “faster”. Under pressure, children stop thinking and write whatever number comes to mind.

Instead:

• If you time it, compare only with the child’s own last time. Comparing with siblings or friends turns arithmetic into winning and losing.
• Time short sets. About 10 problems ends before attention runs out.
• Watch for “no longer hesitating” rather than “faster”. No longer stuck on 7 × 8, no longer counting for 8 + 5. Speed follows from that.

If, as grades go by, a child still counts on fingers for single-digit addition, or takes a very long time to compare which of two numbers is bigger, I would not keep it to home practice alone. Talking to the class teacher is a good next step.

Where MathCal fits

MathCal is a math drill app I make, where children write their answers on the screen by hand.

In the Basic Calculation Drill, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division can each be switched off, and the number of questions can be set in ten steps from 10 to 300. The result is recorded as a SCORE in seconds per question (sec/q), and beating a personal best shows NEW RECORD. The Score Trend chart on the drill’s menu screen shows the change by Week, Month, Year or Latest 10. The comparison is always with the child’s own earlier results. Because answers are handwritten, the time includes writing.

For a child who is still counting, Enable Dots on Number shows a dot for each unit of the numbers. With No Carrying or Borrowing on, the drill gives only problems whose answers stay at 9 or below. To practise the steps of written arithmetic, the Column Arithmetic Drill has children write one digit per cell.

Today’s Challenge on the home screen is one of two, picked by date: Speed Challenge, which asks for 10 questions within 20 seconds, and Focus Challenge, which counts how many questions in a row a child gets right. I would save Speed Challenge for after the answers are reliably right.

Today’s Drill, Today’s Challenge and Today’s Lesson on the home screen are free every day. Choosing any drill or lesson from the full lists requires a one-time purchase. There are no ads. For daily routines, see Ideas for Getting More out of MathCal.

When a child is slow at arithmetic, something is stopping somewhere. Finding that place comes first. Speed can wait.