Seven Prerequisite Math Skills

By: Dr Sharma

1.	The ability to follow sequential directions.
2.	A keen sense of directionality, of one's position in space, of spatial orientation and space organization. Examples include the ability to tell left from right, north/south/east/west, up/down, forward/backwards, horizontal/vertical/diagonal, etc.
3.	Pattern recognition and its extension
4.	Visualization: Key for qualitative students. The ability to conger up pictures in one's mind and manipulate them.
5.	Estimation: The ability to form a reasonable educated guess about size, amount, number, and magnitude.
6.	Deductive reasoning: the ability to reason from the general principal to a particular instance, or reasoning from stated premise to a logical conclusion.
7.	Inductive reasoning: a natural understanding that is not the result of conscious attention or reasoning, easily seeing the patterns in different situations, and the interrelationships between procedures and concepts. (Sharma 1989)

For instance, if one lacks the ability to follow sequential directions, how can he be presented with the concept of long division without failing miserably? Long division requires retention of several different processes that are performed in a specific sequence. First one estimates, then multiplies, then compares, then subtracts, then brings down a number, then estimates, compares, multiplies, subtracts, brings down a number, and so on.

For the same situation, what if the student has directional confusion? When setting up math problems, he will be chronically unsure of which number goes inside the division platform, or on top of the fraction. The mechanics of moving through the problem will be painful. Consider the directional steps involved. One reads to the right,