The teacher calls out the next problem and thirty small whiteboards go up at once. Your child is still working out the first one. By the time the numbers make sense, the class has moved on. The moment teaches something quiet and wrong: that math is a thing other kids get, and they do not. What that moment reads as, though, is a mismatch between a child and a room. It is not a verdict on the child. Their brain is not broken. It is learning differently.
FROM THE VIDEO
Key moments from this talk on math and neurodivergent learners with Dr. Jenny Bullen:
- 06:41Why easier, more rote math backfires, and what deepens understanding instead.
- 19:03What a typical math lesson looks like minute by minute: mostly teacher-led talk and choral answers.
- 44:11The whiteboard pace mismatch that leaves slower processors behind, the specific thing to raise with a teacher.
Common questions from parents
Why is my neurodivergent child falling behind in math when the classroom looks fine?
Should I ask the school for easier, more repetitive math worksheets?
Does struggling in math mean my child is not smart, or not a math person?
Why does my child get reading help but not math help?
Could it be dyscalculia, and should I use a screener?
The Classroom Context: Understanding the General Education Setting
Dr. Jenny Bullen’s research focuses on the experiences of neurodivergent children in general education classrooms, which are traditionally designed for neurotypical learners. These settings often lack the necessary adaptations to cater to the needs of students with disabilities or neurodivergence. As a parent, it’s crucial to recognize that your child may not receive the individualized attention they need in these environments. However, by staying informed about the classroom dynamics, you can better advocate for your child and seek additional support outside of school.
When a neurodivergent child falls behind in math, schools reach for easier worksheets. The research points the other way: harder, thinking-and-explaining math is what builds understanding.
The room your child sits in was not built for them
When a child falls behind in math, the first place we look is the child. Dr. Jenny Bullen, a researcher who has spent hours coding what actually happens in these classrooms, points somewhere else first: the room. She notes that general-education classrooms were built for a neurotypical learner. Most general-education teachers get little to no training in supporting neurodivergent students. Few states even credential teachers in both special and general education. California, where her study ran, is not one of them.
What does that room look like from your child’s seat? In the lessons Bullen’s team coded, teacher-led whole-class talk filled about nine of every twelve minutes. Rote drill took up most of the rest. Conceptual thinking got a sliver. Children were rarely asked to explain their reasoning, and asking their own questions almost never happened. She described it as a lot of passive learning with high listening demands.
That is not a verdict on your child. It is a mismatch between one kind of brain and one kind of teaching. It is worth naming out loud before anyone reaches for a label.
The instinct to hand a struggling child simpler, more repetitive math is the exact opposite of what builds understanding.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
The instinct to make it easier is backwards
Here is the part that surprises most parents. When a neurodivergent child struggles with math, the well-meaning fix is almost always simpler, more repetitive worksheets. Bullen’s research names the opposite. She describes a damaging belief: that these students are not capable of real math thinking. So they get pushed onto lower-demand tasks. Yet it is the higher-demand, conceptual work that deepens understanding, even when the sums are not perfect yet.
Struggling with math says nothing about how capable your child is. There is no hidden wiring that sorts children into math people and everyone else. The belief that some kids simply are not math people is a story children absorb, not a fact about their brains. Handing them the easy version quietly confirms it.
Your child is not learning less because they think less. Their brain is learning differently, and it builds on the harder thinking, not away from it.
Key takeaways
- Look at the room first: The default math lesson is a teacher-led talk with a choral echo.
- Easier work backfires: Higher-demand conceptual math deepens understanding before the arithmetic is perfect.
- Struggle is not wiring: Falling behind in math says nothing about how capable your child is.
The pace mismatch, and what to ask for
There is a specific, fixable moment Bullen points to. In whole-class routines where everyone shows an answer at the same time, the class moves on before slower processors have finished the first problem. Your child gets frustrated or checks out. Sometimes the hands-on materials get taken away as a behavior fix, which removes the one thing that was helping. Naming that pace mismatch to a teacher is far more useful than a vague worry that your child is unable to keep up.
The strongest classrooms Bullen’s team saw did something different. Teachers moved fluidly between letting students reason out loud, supporting the whole class, and putting real materials in children’s hands. It was the balance that mattered, not any single method. If you want a picture of what to look for, this is it: children doing and explaining math, not watching it happen.
At home, you have room to build the skills math runs on. Start with the core skills of math, the number sense and reasoning that formulas rest on. And if it helps to see how engagement and real understanding pull apart in math, that gap is worth closing. The goal is not more drills. It is a child who knows what the numbers mean.
A child freezing at the whiteboard is not slow at math. The routine asked everyone to answer at once, then moved on.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
You want your child to walk into math without bracing for the moment they fall behind. You want them to see themselves as someone who thinks, not someone who waits for the class to move on. The villain here is not your child’s brain, and it is not a diagnosis. It is a system that valued reading enough to catch a struggle early. Math it left to sort itself out, in rooms built for a learner your child was never going to be. Nobody will push on that harder than you will. That is exactly why your involvement is the lever, not the school’s. A math struggle rarely travels alone. Most children who find math hard are carrying more than one thing. An attention load, a working-memory bottleneck, or a knock to their confidence that started long before the worksheets. All Access gives you the whole set of tools for the whole child, with the coaching to know what to do at home and when to change it.
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Your school district must evaluate your child free of charge if you ask in writing, whatever your income and whatever the outcome (US, 34 CFR 300.111 and 300.301(b)). That route takes time and answers a different question than you do. This one starts today, from what you already know.
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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.
