Oh, how I love ST Math. My kids don’t quite love it as much as I do, but they have benefitted greatly from using it.
ST Math teaches in a unique way. It teaches math concepts (and math facts as) completely without words. The ST in ST Math stands for spacial-temporal. Spacial refers to the position of objects in space and related to one another and temporal refers to time. Kids play games and figure out math concepts based on where the characters are on the screen and how the characters interact with obstacles. The website has some good videos with demonstrations and you can try out the games yourself.
ST Math teaches math concepts and teaches kids on the fluency of their math facts without the use of words. This is done through visual games and puzzles that require mathematical knowledge and thinking to solve. This is especially great for English language learners and kids with dyslexia or other language-based learning disorders. They don’t need to understand words to learn and do math. The math is not entirely disconnected from the traditional presentation of math either. The normal written symbols are introduced after the concepts are taught and the kids practice using their math skills on quizzes very much like any quiz in any textbook.
I love that the concepts are taught in ways that give great meaning to the math equations being solved or the math concepts being taught. I took a lot of math courses in high school and college, but watching my son work through ST Math taught me a few concepts that I had never understood. One example is that I learned what it really means to divide by a fraction. I had learned the method to solve 6 ÷ ¾, namely that you change it to 6 * 4/3, and I could employ that method perfectly. But it wasn’t until ST Math came into our lives that I learned that it means, if 6 things fit into ¾ of a whole, how many fit into one whole (spoiler alert: the answer is 8). ST Math gave me a new level of understanding to that particular problem.
ST Math allows kids to progress at their own pace and to keep working on a subject until they master it. The work is individualized and each child can work on a concept until they are able to understand it. ST Math covers kindergarten through eighth grade math, and it covers all the same topics that are covered in traditional textbooks. Nothing is left out. Kids can practice math, learn concepts they missed, develop fluency in their math facts, or even work ahead of their class, all in one place.
When it comes to keeping up in school, math concepts may come second after learning math fact fluency, but they are still supremely important for your child’s future. However, every child is able to learn math and to learn it well. They just need some tools and support to do so.
Some school districts provide ST Math for their students, so check with your child’s teacher or the district’s technology specialist to see if it is available for your child for free.