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Math Struggles
In addition to the vulnerabilities that reading suffers from, the mental structure of how we do mathematical operations makes it very fragile in the presence of the emotional arousal. Math requires that you do a very precise sequence of steps. Even the lightest deviation in these steps corrupts the whole process. Most math education is about is learning these steps. This means that the child has to keep the overall sequence of steps in mind as he performs each individual step of that sequence. If he is distracted or attention is broken by the emotional arousal then he loses the image of the sequence of steps, as well as where he is in that sequence.
This has long been documented by standard individual intelligence tests such as the Wechsler. These tests are sensitive to the effect of anxiety on sequencing operations. Anxiety often causes a wide variation in the scores between individual scales. Scales that are most sensitive to anxiety drop precipitously, where as those that require less sequencing stay high. So, if your child is given an intelligence test, do not accept the overall IQ scores as valid until you have been shown the individual scores on each of the scales. If there is much variation between scales, anxiety is likely suppressing the lower scores and possibly all of them. In these situations, the test is an under estimate of your child’s intelligence.
Attentional Overload
For all of us, attention is a very limited and valuable mental resource that must be shared by the all the mental tasks including emotional control and attentional focus as well as performing the task, usually in that order. In emotionally aroused situations, there is often little attention left for completing the task since it is last in line for attention resources.
It is better for children to feel successful than to put too much focus on errors. Most reading mistakes will rectify themselves over time.
