How to find the math skill your child is missing
By Tim McAneny, elementary math specialist — 16 years in public classrooms.
When a child has trouble with grade-level math, the real gap is usually a year or two earlier. Multiplication facts feel impossible when place value is shaky. Word problems fall apart when number facts are slow. Drilling the grade-level skill rarely fixes that. Teachers look for the first missing skill instead, and you can do a version of that at home tonight.
3 quick tasks, about 10 minutes
Sit together with your child and something to count. Watch how they work, not just whether they get it right.
1. Counting on
Count out a small pile, about 12. Ask “what is 2 more?” Starting the count over from 1 is normal in kindergarten. By 1st grade, counting on from 12 is the sign of solid number sense.
2. Number facts
Ask “what is 8 + 7?” and then “what is 15 − 6?” Fast means on track. Slow, with fingers, means the facts need practice. Stuck means go back one skill.
3. Tens and ones
Write 17 and ask what the 1 means. If the answer is “1,” place value is still fuzzy — and that explains most trouble with bigger numbers later.
Start one skill below where you think they are
If your child was slow or stuck, practice the skill just before it — not the one that failed. Practicing a gap the child cannot yet reach frays both of you. Practicing the skill under it builds the floor the hard one stands on, and the hard one usually follows within a few weeks.
The same method works for reading
Reading builds the same way: letter sounds, then blending sounds into words, then sight words, then reading smoothly. Listen to your child read one short paragraph out loud. Which step wobbles? Practice that one, not comprehension.
When to use a gap check instead
The method above needs a parent who knows the sequence. Our free gap check does the same thing in about 3 minutes: 3 questions and 3 tasks, and it names the one skill to practice first, with a teacher’s reason. The first week of Activities is free, and no account is needed to see the result.
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