Many people get a little anxious about their ability to do maths, especially mental maths and non-simple arithmetic. When we talk about maths anxiety we mean something that is much more problematic than just feeling worried — it occurs when the anxiety leads to a proper fear response (see Box 1). Maths anxiety has been defined as ‘a negative emotional response that inhibits the ability to work with numbers and solve mathematical problems that has a negative impact on performance’ (Richardson and Suinn 1972).
Maths anxiety is not like other forms of anxiety. People can have this kind of anxiety when they are not anxious in any other aspect of their lives. If you suffer from this form of anxiety then you might well have developed it when you were about 5 or 6 years old. It is often around this age that children have their first encounter with a negative experience around maths and this then creates the anxiety that can continue into adulthood.
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