Teaching word problems : a practical approach

Word problems become a stumbling block for many children, including those who are adept at operational and procedural skills. Many children develop an approach to tackling word problems based on looking for cue words such as altogether, difference, sum and so on; but this has a very limited value. Too often, such children resort to guesswork while figuring out an operation. These children experience significantly greater math anxiety when they are confronted by word problems. Why is this