Multi-Sensory Maths Toolkit for Building Confidence: Making Maths Stick And Why Confidence Comes First

Maths anxiety is real. For many children, the fear of getting it wrong stops them from even trying — and without a solid understanding of the basics, every new concept feels like a mountain to climb.

At Reachout Educational, we believe that confidence is the key to success in maths — and that confidence grows when children are engaged, supported, and having fun.

That’s why we created the Maths Confidence Toolkit: a multi-sensory, hands-on resource designed to help all learners build solid foundations in maths — and enjoy doing it.

🧠 Why Multi-Sensory Learning Works

Every child learns differently. Some respond well to verbal instruction. Others need to see a concept in action, touch it, or move with it to really understand.

Multi-sensory learning combines:

• 🧏‍♀️ Auditory (hearing and speaking)

• 👀 Visual (seeing and reading)

• ✋ Tactile/Kinesthetic (touching and doing)

This approach has been proven to:

• Increase memory retention

• Boost engagement and enjoyment

• Support children with SEND, dyscalculia, ADHD, and more

• Build real, transferable understanding

Whether a child struggles with times tables or number sense, multi-sensory strategies help make maths meaningful — not just memorised.

🔍 Why Securing the Basics Matters

Children often struggle with advanced maths not because of the new topic itself — but because they’re unsure of the basics that underpin it. Skills like:

• Counting confidently

• Understanding place value

• Knowing number bonds and times tables

• Being able to add and subtract flexibly

These are the building blocks of all future learning. If they’re shaky, everything that comes next feels unstable.

The Maths Confidence Toolkit focuses on securing those foundations — in a way that feels more like a game than a lesson.

🧰 What’s Inside the Toolkit?

The Toolkit is jam-packed with tactile, reusable, and adaptable resources. Here's what's included:

✅ Instruction sheet + YouTube video guides

✅ A4 Times Table Sheets (1–12, filled and blank)

✅ Mixed-colour bottle lids x 20

✅ Mixed-colour counters x 25

✅ Double-sided 1–200 number poppit square

✅ Pack of 2 wipeable document pouches + pen

✅ 3 x pre-populated Alphabet Grids + 1 blank version

✅ A4 1–100,000 number grid

✅ A4 whiteboard with grids

✅ Understanding Dyscalculia Guide + Checklist

✅ Exclusive Maths Profile Maps (boy & girl versions + blanks)

✍️ Wipeable resources reduce pressure

The toolkit includes wipe-clean pouches and whiteboards, allowing children to try things out, make mistakes, and change their answers without fear. For many anxious learners, just knowing they can erase and redo their work helps build confidence and lowers the pressure to “get it right” the first time.

These tools can be used in limitless combinations to explore maths concepts through games, challenges, and explorations — tailored to what your learner needs most.

🎯 Confidence Through Play

Research shows that learning through play:

• Increases engagement

• Reduces anxiety

• Boosts long-term memory

• Builds emotional safety around learning

That’s why so many of our toolkit activities feel like play, even though they’re packed with solid maths learning.

From popping numbers on the poppit board to building sums with bottle lids, to personalising alphabet grids using their favourite words — children don’t just learn maths; they enjoy it.

And as they tick off successes, something even more powerful happens: ✨ They start to believe that they can do maths.

❓ What Is Dyscalculia — and Why Does It Matter?

Dyscalculia is a specific learning difficulty that affects a person’s ability to understand number concepts, remember maths facts, and perform accurate calculations. Often described as “maths dyslexia,” it’s more than just disliking maths — it’s a neurological difficulty with number processing.

The Toolkit includes:

• A clear guide to understanding dyscalculia

• A Dyscalculia Checklist to help identify potential areas of difficulty

⚠️ The checklist is not a diagnostic tool, but it is incredibly useful — even for children without dyscalculia.

Looking at a child’s maths learning through a dyscalculia-informed lens helps to pinpoint barriers, tailor support, and deliver the right interventions at the right time. In short, it helps any child who is struggling — regardless of diagnosis.

🧒 Building Confidence Through Personalised Support

The included Maths Profile Maps help children express how they feel about different aspects of maths. With child-friendly visuals and space for drawings or comments, these profiles:

• Open up discussion

• Help identify specific problem areas

• Involve children in shaping their own learning

Use them to target the right activities from the toolkit, personalise interventions, and give children a greater sense of ownership and motivation.

💡 Practical Ways to Use the Toolkit

Here are just a few creative ways to bring the toolkit to life:

• 🎯 Alphabet Grid Games: Spell out their name or favourite food and solve the matching maths problems — see which word scores the most!

• 💥 Poppit Challenges: Use the 1–200 poppit board for counting, skip-counting, adding, subtracting, or finding number patterns.

• 🪙 Coin Recognition: Use the number cards and real coins for practical money maths.

• 🧩 Times Table Memory Game: Cover known answers with bottle tops, then uncover and test what’s underneath.

• ✏️ Quick-Fire Grid Workouts: Use the whiteboard grids to challenge number bond fluency or column methods.

🛍️ Build Confidence in Maths — One Fun Step at a Time

The Maths Confidence Toolkit is more than a pack of resources — it’s a toolkit for changing attitudes, boosting skills, and making maths joyful.

Perfect for:

• Whole-class use

• Small group interventions

• One-to-one tutoring

• Home learning

• SEND and dyscalculia support

👉 Order yours today and start turning “I can’t do maths” into “I’ve got this!” https://www.reachouteducational.co.uk/product-page/maths-confidence-toolkit

Because when children feel confident in maths, they don’t just get better at numbers —they become better problem solvers, thinkers, and learners for life.