Using Technology to Help Children with Math Has Big Benefits

If you grew up in a Carmel home and went to a typical California school, odds are you have memories of how boring math class was. It's no secret -- surveys show that roughly 40% of Americans find the subject dull or intimidating. Luckily for today's kids, new advances in technology have demonstrable benefits when it comes to helping them engage with the material.

Part of the problem that children face stems from parental help, or a lack thereof. Many parents are reluctant to sit down and work with their children on their math homework. While your average parents with a Carmel home understand the importance of teaching language skills and reading to children frequently, most parents regard teaching subjects like math as a school's duty. Increasing parental engagement alone isn't the answer, however, as a recent study from the University of Chicago found that receiving frequent help from parents who weren't confident in math actually undermined children's performance.

Luckily for those families, a subsequent study may have found the answer -- an iPad app. Bedtime Math is an app that offers children and parents math problems to solve in the context of a bedtime story. It makes the material fun and engaging for children who are anxious or apathetic about math, and provides structure to help prevent math-anxious parents from getting in their children's way.

During the course of the study, the experimental group used Bedtime Math while a control group used a similar bedtime story app without any math involved. Over the course of the school year, the children using Bedtime Math made significant progress in their math skills. The difference was particularly dramatic for children with math-anxious parents, and did not require frequent use. All the average family with a Carmel home needs to do is use the app as little as once a week for their children to experience measurable gains in their math skills.

It's understandable for some parents to be insecure about their math skills, and some components of math anxiety may be genetic. For a kid living in a Carmel home and attending a California school, their math performance and anxiety level can be influenced by genes, math-anxious parents, and even math-anxious teachers. With Bedtime Math, they can help get the boost in math skills they need to feel comfortable and perform their best academically.