Development of numerical processing in children with typical and dyscalculic arithmetic skills—a longitudinal study

Abstract

Numerical processing has been demonstrated to be closely associated with arithmetic skills, however, our knowledge on the development of the relevant cognitive mechanisms is limited. The present longitudinal study investigated the developmental trajectories of numerical processing in 42 children with age-adequate arithmetic development and 41 children with dyscalculia over a 2-year period from beginning of Grade 2, when children were 7; 6 years old, to beginning of Grade 4. A battery of numerical processing tasks (dot enumeration, non-symbolic and symbolic comparison of one- and two-digit numbers, physical comparison, number line estimation) was given five times during the study (beginning and middle of each school year). Efficiency of numerical processing was a very good indicator of development in numerical processing while within-task effects remained largely constant and showed low long-term stability before middle of Grade 3. Children with dyscalculia showed less efficient numerical processing reflected in specifically prolonged response times. Importantly, they showed consistently larger slopes for dot enumeration in the subitizing range, an untypically large compatibility effect when processing two-digit numbers, and they were consistently less accurate in placing numbers on a number line. Thus, we were able to identify parameters that can be used in future research to characterize numerical processing in typical and dyscalculic development. These parameters can also be helpful for identification of children who struggle in their numerical development.

Impairment of Arabic- and spoken-number processing in children with mathematical learning disability

“…First, with respect to number access, our results were in agreement with those reported by De Smedt and Gilmore (2011), Landerl andKölle (2009), andNoël (2007), who found that children with MLD had difficulty comparing Arabic numbers. Indeed, children with MLD in the present study were less successful and slower than TD children not only in Arabic but also in spoken number comparison and judgment, pointing to a number comprehension deficit in both symbolic codes.…”

“…This is also the case in various studies on MLD in which children presented with mathematical difficulties, along with learning, cognitive and/or linguistic impairment (e.g., Ashkenazi, Mark-Zigdon, & Henik, 2013;Andersson & Östergren, 2012;Landerl, 2013). Thus, our results provide support to the hypothesis that MLD is caused by multiple numerical and general cognitive deficits (Geary, 1993(Geary, , 2010.…”

Marcadores nucleares de la competencia aritmética en preescolares

“…En definitiva, los resultados del presente estudio sugieren que competencias numéricas básicas como la comparación de magnitudes numéricas (especialmente las simbólicas) y la enumeración pueden tener un papel relevante en la adquisición temprana de la aritmética, y de esta forma constituir marcadores nucleares de la competencia aritmética y por lo tanto tener un valor diagnóstico desde el punto de vista de la prevención y la detección de niños con riesgo de padecer dificultades específicas en el aprendizaje de la aritmética. De hecho, algunos estudios han demostrado que los discalcúlicos presentan déficits específicos tanto en tareas de comparación de magnitudes numéricas simbólicas (e.g., De Smedt&Gilmore, 2011), como en tareas de enumeración, especialmente en el rango de subitizing (e.g., Landerl, 2013).…”

Using basic number processing tasks in determining students with mathematics disorder risk

“…Dot counting: In dot enumeration tasks, which are aimed at measuring the numerical learning capacity, subjects are required to rapidly and accurately determine the number of dots presented, usually less than 10 dots (15). Human brain can determine one to three or four dots at a glance without counting (12).…”