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Every child has a limited working memory—the small “mental desk space” where active thinking happens. When that space is filled with finger counting or working out 7×8 for the tenth time, there’s little room left for connecting ideas, noticing patterns, or reasoning through multi-step problems. Scientists call this cognitive load: when routine tasks take up too much capacity, higher-level thinking suffers.
Automatic recall is the opposite of reasoning, it supports higher-level thinking. Students who can quickly and accurately draw on math facts are able to hold more complex ideas in mind, explore strategies, and sustain their focus. When fluency is shaky, even strong conceptual thinkers may stall, grow frustrated, and begin to believe “I’m not a math person.” Anxiety feeds on that stall-out, making recall slower, which makes the problem feel harder—a cycle teachers see daily.
This was the central message of our recent webinar, Mastering Math Fact Fluency: Unlocking Student Success with XtraMath, with featured expert and former classroom teacher Dr. Amanda Slayton. She has lived both sides: middle school math teacher facing students without solid facts, and researcher studying how fluency practice predicts outcomes on state tests.
“Students who knew their math facts—they just did better in school.”
Dr. Slayton described fluency as the sight words of mathematics. In reading, sight words give children an anchor so they can focus on comprehension. In math, facts provide the same foundation. Without them, a student tackling long division or factoring polynomials is burning precious brain power just to compute 9×7. With them, they can think about the actual problem.
Her research with Texas middle schoolers showed that gains in addition fluency explained about 21% of the variance in state math test scores. She was quick to caution: fluency isn’t the only factor, but it’s a measurable and significant one. And importantly, how fluency is built matters. Younger children may start with finger counting, but by junior high, it becomes a brake on learning. “Speed does matter,” she said, “not for its own sake, but because automaticity frees up working memory for problem solving.”
The webinar shared how Teachers can make practice stick, for example:
Younger grades can begin every class with ten minutes of XtraMath, giving time to take attendance and students a predictable start.
Some schools coordinated a school-wide fluency block so that every child, every morning, practiced together.
Certificates and trophies, even printed and taped to the wall, carried outsized motivational power. Students came in each day expecting to see their progress posted.
For students with special needs, adjusting thresholds was key. One eighth grader could not succeed at three seconds; moving him to six seconds unlocked success and pride.
XtraMath’s design supports these routines. The adaptive algorithm ensures that each student is getting the best questions for them thatday. Short, daily sessions take about ten minutes. Reports give teachers aclear picture of who’s moving forward and where extra support is needed. It supports positive reinforcement through immediate feedback, progresstracking, digital trophies, certificates, and printable classroom materials. As Amanda put it, the key is consistency: “Short practice, every day. Twenty tothirty minutes wouldn’t even sound fun to me as a math teacher. Ten minutes works.”
Jackie Orcutt, XtraMath’s product marketing manager, emphasized how easy it is to fold into class life:
· Adaptive practice that adjusts in real time.
· Individualized sessions that target each student’s gaps.
· Clear reports for teachers and families.
· Optional game-based practice that extend student learning (Awakening)
By the end of the session, the throughline was clear: fluency builds confidence. Students who no longer stall out on basics approach math with more ease. They solve problems faster, take on challenges more willingly, and begin to see themselves as capable mathematicians.
“Being fluent allows students to move beyond the fundamentals and engage in more complex tasks,” Amanda reminded us.
Fluency is about resilience and pride, not just recall. Ten minutes a day adds up to serious practice over the year—enough to change a student’s lifetime trajectory.
