Symptoms

Symptoms are always of an individual nature and this is often the problem in the context of early detection of learning problems. Consequently, the list is not to be understood as a complete catalog, whose mentioned symptoms must be present in every child. The following list is only intended to show which symptoms may occur. It is up to you to decide whether they apply to your child. Causes in the area of socio-cultural and family conditions: Causes in the area of school: causes in the neurotic – psychogenic area: causes in the constitutional area (see above):

Lack of endurance and performance motivation
Poor working posture
Language problems
Lack of self-confidence
…
Fear of failure
Performance level too low too high
Lack of schooling
Gaps in the area of basic arithmetic (also: lack of ability to understand and penetrate a situation: stubborn application of learned mechanisms without having understood the principle
Training of subjective algorithms
…
Anxiety lacking self-confidence
Defense mechanisms
Aggressive behaviour
ApathyInterest
…
Motor abnormalities
Thinking Blockades
Visual perception disorders
Difficulty in processing information: weaknesses in speech, perception, thinking and/or memory, or impaired motor skills).
Difficulties in the area of automation (automation practice is an essential part of mathematics teaching)
…

Basic arithmetic operations

Errors that manifest themselves in the mathematical field can be manifold. Often, however, children with weak arithmetic abilities show that they are bound to the view for longer than other children and therefore have to internalize the concrete, acting structure of an operation for longer. Especially in the first two years of school, in which the number spaces (up to 20, later up to 100) are worked out by addition and subtraction, later also by multiplication and division, and the systematic structure of the decadic system is internalized, the action level is an essential element in building each child’s mathematical understanding.

Especially the four basic arithmetic operations can be easily verbalized… Other terms to illustrate the basic arithmetic

Add-Add-Add-Add-Add-Complete-Add-Deferral-Add-Increase…
Add
Merge
Add
Add
This includes
Multiply
…
Decrease subtraction removal removal displacement shift back count…
Take away
Put away
Push away
Count back
Decrease
…
Multiplication… times as many times as the number of times the same quantity is increased…
… times as much
Combining equal quantities
Enlarge
…
Divisional distribution…
Split
Distribute
…
Add
Merge
Add
Add
This includes
Multiply
…
Take away
Put away
Push away
Count back
Decrease
…
… times as much
Combining equal quantities
Enlarge
…
Split
Distribute
…

… and acting: At this level, a child with weak arithmetic ability stays longer, whereby each child should be given the opportunity to use materials to clarify problems (return to the enactive level). Only by consistently penetrating the basic mathematical arithmetic and the possibility of clarifying these mathematical problems with different materials can children be given the opportunity to understand and not just the possibility of stupidly applying mathematical rules and laws. Only those who have understood WHY are able to apply arithmetic procedures again and again even in modified situations (factual tasks) and to extend them to other number ranges (in elementary school: natural numbers up to one million).

With the help of verbalizing and acting, the child’s errors in thinking can be recognized and corrected early on (at the level of enactive action). Let your child describe how it came to its solution and allow its way of thinking as long as it has been properly thought through. If it is all too complicated, you can of course make it clear to your child that there are easier ways to reach the goal – perhaps even safer.

But never give him the feeling that his way of calculating is “completely feeble-minded” or “totally wrong”. Again, it is the sound that makes the music and can decide whether your child accepts the well-intentioned advice. Only when the child has understood how arithmetic procedures “work” in an active (enactive) way, can we move on to the iconic and symbolic level. In some cases, it is also possible to combine the enactive and iconic levels in case the child has to stay on the action level for a long time.