Defective number module or impaired access? Numerical magnitude processing in first graders with mathematical difficulties

Abstract

This study examined numerical magnitude processing in first graders with severe and mild forms of mathematical difficulties, children with mathematics learning disabilities (MLD) and children with low achievement (LA) in mathematics, respectively. Twenty children with MLD, twenty-one children with LA and forty-one regular achievers completed a numerical magnitude comparison task and an approximate addition task, which were presented in a symbolic and a non-symbolic (dot arrays) format. Children with MLD and LA were impaired on tasks that involved the access of numerical magnitude information from symbolic representations, with the LA children showing a less severe performance pattern than children with MLD. They showed no deficits in accessing magnitude from underlying nonsymbolic magnitude representations. Our findings indicate that this performance pattern occurs in children from first grade on and generalizes beyond numerical magnitude comparison tasks. These findings shed light on the types of interventions that may help children who struggle with learning mathematics.

Individual differences in kindergarten math achievement: The integrative roles of approximation skills and working memory

“…De Smedt & Gilmore, 2011;Mundy & Gilmore, 2009;Holloway & Ansari, 2009). Instead, nonsymbolic abilities played an important role for children of older ages Mazzocco et al, 2011).…”

“…As illustrated in Figure 1, we hypothesized that: (1) Nonsymbolic and symbolic approximation skills would comprise two distinct abilities WM would influence performance in both nonsymbolic (Xenidou-Dervou et al, in press) and symbolic approximation (Caviola et al, 2012); (4) Nonsymbolic approximation would predict symbolic approximation since the latter is assumed to recruit nonsymbolic approximate representations (Gilmore et al, 2007), and lastly that (5) Nonsymbolic (Gilmore, et al, 2010) and symbolic approximation (De Smedt & Gilmore, 2011) would predict kindergarteners' mathematical achievement. Because the role of approximation skills in the process of learning mathematics remains elusive (Gilmore et al, 2010;Mundy & Gilmore, 2009;Noël & Rouselle, 2011), we tested two additional models.…”

Habilidades Matemáticas Iniciales Y Dificultades Matemáticas Persistentes

“…La comparación de magnitudes, también parece ser una habilidad básica que se relaciona con el rendimiento matemático (Butterworth, 2005;De Smedt y Gilmore, 2011;Schleifer y Landerl, 2011). Sin embargo, los resultados sobre el peso relativo de esta habilidad así como su importancia en las dificultades matemáticas tempranas y persistentes no están claros (De Smedt, Noël, Gilmore, y Ansari, 2013).…”

Heterogeneidade cognitiva nas dificuldades de aprendizagem da matemática: uma revisão bibliográfica

“…Maiores tempos de reação e taxas de erro na tarefa de comparação simbólica de magnitudes em crianças com DAM foram observados em diversos estudos (Bachot, Gevers, Fias & Roeyers, 2005;De Smedt & Gilmore, 2011;De Smedt et al, 2007;Landerl et al, 2004;Rousselle & Noël, 2007). Não foi possível, entretanto, demonstrar de forma consistente diferenças entre os dois grupos em tarefas de comparação não simbólica de magnitude (De Smedt & Gilmore, 2011;Rousselle & Noël, 2007).…”

“…Não foi possível, entretanto, demonstrar de forma consistente diferenças entre os dois grupos em tarefas de comparação não simbólica de magnitude (De Smedt & Gilmore, 2011;Rousselle & Noël, 2007). Uma interpretação proposta para este resultado consiste em postular que a dificuldade das crianças não se encontra tanto no senso numérico em si, mas sim, no acesso automático às representações não simbólicas de magnitude a partir das representações simbólicas.…”