It looks like a focus problem. Your teen opens the algebra homework, reads one line, and reaches for the phone. To us, it often looks like something older. One step in algebra never got built. When that step is missing, a teen starts to say, “I’m not a math person.” You are not the only parent hearing that sentence.
FROM THE VIDEO
Key moments from Raise the Game, with an ADHD study coach in Ireland:
Common questions from parents
My teen struggles to focus. Is that why algebra is so hard?
Is my teen a creative, right-brained learner who needs math taught differently?
How much math practice should my teen do each day?
Will a free screener tell me what is behind my teen’s math struggle?
Your teen is not a “right-brain kid” who needs a creative way into algebra. That brain type did not show up in the scans. What helps is smaller: five problems a day.
Why does my teen hit a wall in algebra?
The video below comes from an ADHD study coach in Ireland. He says plainly that he is not a math teacher. His big point is a good one. He calls algebra “the language of maths.” In his telling, nearly every later topic leans on it. Get algebra, and the rest opens up.
He also names one cause. During COVID, he says, many students missed their early math classes online. They could not practice. Then the harder classes came, and the base was not there.
To us, this is the pattern to look for. A teen who is stuck now is often missing a step from years back. That gap is worth checking before anyone decides it is focus or ability. Here is why we would teach the missed step now.
Maybe a doctor has given the focus struggle a name. Keep this in mind. A diagnosis describes where your child is today. It does not predict where they’ll be in a year of the right kind of practice.
Algebra grows from doing algebra, not from one side of the brain.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
Is my teen a “right-brain” kid who needs a creative way in?
Later, the coach says math should come from the right brain, not the left. Left is logical, he says, and right is creative. Here we part ways with him.
Nielsen and colleagues (2013) studied brain scans of children and young adults. Their data did not fit “left-brained” or “right-brained” people. See why logic and creativity are both skills your teen builds.
There is a bigger point under it. Teaching to a “type” of learner has been checked twice. Pashler and colleagues reviewed it in 2008. Clinton-Lisell and Litzinger checked it again in 2024. Neither time did the evidence justify matching teaching to a style. So there is no creative-brain way to teach algebra to your teen. Algebra grows from doing algebra.
Why does this matter at home? Our view is that the label hands a teen an exit. “I’m the creative one” turns into “math is not for me.” The coach is right that spotting patterns matters. To us, patterns come from working lots of problems. They do not come from one side of the brain.
Key takeaways
- Check the missing step: A teen stuck in algebra is often missing one earlier step.
- No brain types: Teaching to a learning style was checked twice and not justified.
- Small and daily: Five problems a day keeps the load small and easy to start.
What helps a teen who struggles to focus get back on track?
Keep each sitting small. The coach’s best tip is five problems a day, all year. We like it because the load stays small. Best and Miller (2010) describe one memory task. How well children did changed with how much they had to hold at once. Five problems is easier to start than fifty.
Spread it out. Cepeda and colleagues (2006) pooled many studies of practice. Practice spread over days was remembered longer than the same practice crammed together. So we pick a little each day over one long night before a test. Here is how spaced review helps a child who struggles to focus.
Keep it going. Homework lines up with school results most in high school (Cooper, 2001). Cooper warned that this is a link, not proof of cause. Here is a simple routine:
- After homework, try one old test question on the same idea. The coach calls this his big hack.
- Do five problems a day. Stop at five, so it stays easy to start.
- When a problem breaks, go back one step. Practice the step that never got built.
- Ask the teacher which earlier topic to review first.
Calm the panic first. Some teens freeze before they start. Young, Wu and Menon (2012) scanned children doing math. Their math worry looked like fear in the brain. The study shows a link, not a cause. To us, panic is a feeling to calm, not a verdict on ability. Read more about math anxiety and what helps.
To us, panic is a feeling to calm, not a verdict on ability.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
You want a teen who walks into math class expecting to get it. Too often, school moves the class on and labels the student who got lost. Nobody will ever advocate for your child as hard as you will. A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis. Only a full evaluation by a professional leads to an IEP or 504 plan. To look at math and focus together, start with the free Learning Difficulties Analysis.
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A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis. If your child might need formal accommodations (an IEP or 504 plan), or you suspect a vision, hearing or medical cause, pursue a professional evaluation too. That is the only route to those supports.
