Mathematics and deaf children: an exploration of barriers to success

Abstract

Consistent evidence from research studies between 1980 and 2000

Arithmetic School Readiness of Preschoolers with Hearing Impairment

“…This is evident from the mean scores provided in Table 5. Similar observations were made in earlier studies by Pau (1995) and Wood et al, (1983), Nunes and Moreno (2002), Swanwick et al (2005). They too observed that children with hearing impairment performed poorer than typically developing children on the tasks evaluated by them.…”

“…Similar observations were made by Meadow-Orlans (1980). Swanwick et al (2005) reported that findings from research studies between 1980 -2000 suggest that there is an average delay of 2 to 3.5 years in mathematical achievement in children with hearing loss. However, many of these children were reported to show similar processes as their hearing peers, confirming the suggestion of delay in mathematical development rather than a disorder or deviant development.…”

“…However, many of these children were reported to show similar processes as their hearing peers, confirming the suggestion of delay in mathematical development rather than a disorder or deviant development. Based on the above study, Swanwick et al (2005) suggested that students functioning at lower mathematic levels may not have the opportunity to be exposed to the curriculum content at a higher level and therefore continue to perform poorly in content that requires the use of higher order analytical skills.…”

“…Similarly, in India, the Kothari Commission (1966) and the National Policy of Education (1986Education ( , amended in 1992 recommends the need and importance of early childhood care and education. Evidence from literature indicates that children with hearing impairment perform poorer in academics compared to their hearing peers (Nunes, 2004;Nunes & Moreno, 2002;Powers, Gregory, & Thoutenhoofd, 1999;Swanwick, Oddy, & Roper, 2005). Besides having difficulties in language, several studies have demonstrated that children with hearing impairment have considerable problems in mathematical abilities (Nunes & Moreno, 2002;Pagliaro & Kritzer, 2013;Pau, 1995;Stewart & Kluwin, 2001;Wood, Wood, & Howarth, 1983).…”

Numerical Magnitude Processing in Deaf Adolescents and Its Contribution to Arithmetical Ability

“…Secondly, the researches on whether there are gender differences in mathematical performance of hearing individuals are still controversial, so we want to explore the gender differences in numerical magnitude processing and arithmetic computation of deaf adolescents. Thirdly, in view of the importance of mathematical ability and the lag of deaf children in arithmetic (Traxler, 2000 ; Swanwick et al, 2005 ; Gottardis et al, 2011 ), against the background of the found associations between numerical magnitude processing and arithmetical ability of hearing individuals (Fazio et al, 2014 ; Zhang et al, 2016 ; Schneider et al, 2017 ) and no significant differences between deaf and hearing individuals in their number representation processes (Zarfaty et al, 2004 ; Arfé et al, 2011 ; Barbosa, 2013 ), we also aimed to examine whether numerical magnitude processing (symbolic, non-symbolic) is a predictor of the arithmetical ability of the deaf adolescents.…”