When a child struggles with math, most of us assume the problem is math

A Note from the InkandescentKids editors: If it’s Friday, it’s time for our weekly spotlight on HomeschoolOT founder Sarah Collins, who will be sharing her insights with us. See our first post below, and be sure to follow Sarah at homeschoolot.com.

A Note from Sarah: This topic was inspired by a recent conversation on The OT is IN podcast with speech-language pathologist Amanda Owens. If you’d like to dive deeper into the connection between language, reading, writing, and even math, click here to listen to the podcast and here to watch on YouTube.

WikiMedia Source: Math

By Sarah Collins, MSOT, OTR/L

When a child struggles with math, most of us assume the problem is math.

Sometimes that’s true.

But sometimes the challenge is hiding somewhere else.

Consider a word problem.

Before a child ever solves the equation, they must read the words, understand the vocabulary, follow the sequence of information, determine what the question is asking,