Before you start

Helping children who are anxious about maths can be a challenge. Your child might be resistant to your help, or you might not know how best to develop their understanding of a particular problem.

We've teamed up with the financial services organisation, TP ICAP, to bring you this guidance, along with tried and tested resources to help you.

What is maths anxiety?

A fear of maths is probably more common than you think. If your child - or you - lack confidence or feel anxious about maths then you're not alone. This guidance from National Numeracy will help you to understand why it happens, how to spot the signs of it and how to deal with it. It's a good starting point, before you begin to help your child overcome their maths anxiety.

Maths is taught differently now, so how can I help my child?

If you feel confident when helping your child with their maths, then you're more likely to experience success. Methods of teaching maths may have changed a lot since you were at school, or maybe you – along with many other adults – are also wrestling with maths anxiety, based on your own school experiences of this subject. This guidance about current teaching methods and helping with homework from National Numeracy will help you to feel confident and give you some great ideas for how you can help your child. This White Rose Maths film – Maths with Michael is a great way to find out about how maths is taught in schools and how a lot of it isn't so different now.

Remember, too, that you can help your child in many ways to become more confident with numbers - not just by helping with homework.

You can build practical maths into your day-to-day life through this range of maths around the home activities.