Memory Abilities in Children With Subtypes of Dyscalculia

Abstract

This study examines (a) mathematical skills of 2 subgroups of children with developmental dyscalculia (DD)--1 group with DD only and a second group with DD plus reading disorders (RDD)-and (b) analyzes the memory skills of both groups of children. Fifty 11- and 12-year-old children were selected from public schools in Guadalajara, Mexico. Seventeen children had DD only, 13 had RDD, and 20 were normal controls. Testing included 10 calculation and 6 memory subtests taken from the Evaluación Neuropsicológica Infantil (Matute, Rosselli, Ardila, and Ostrosky, in press). Results indicated that children with DD and children with RDD show a similar pattern of mathematical impairment. Both subgroups had significantly lower scores than the control group in working memory tasks. In addition, the RDD group had significantly lower scores than the control group in visual learning and semantic memory. Although the RDD group scored lower than the DD group in most memory tests, this difference did not reach significance. Working memory tests (digits backwards and sentence repetition) appeared to be the best predictors of mathematical test scores and may represent a major cognitive defect in children with specific defects in mathematics.

Dysfunctional neural network of spatial working memory contributes to developmental dyscalculia

“…Interestingly, in our study there are no differences between groups regarding the digit span backward, which is 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 predominantly a measure of verbal working memory. Some studies have found impairments in this domain (D'Amico & Guarnera, 2005;Rosselli et al, 2006), whereas others suggest that children with DD do not appear to have a deficit in working memory for language-related tasks (McLean & Hitch, 1999;Schuchardt et al, 2008). Our results may be explained by the small group size of examined children and therefore additional research about the role of verbal working memory in children with DD is required.…”

“…Working memory refers to the mental capacity responsible for the temporary processing and storage of information (Rosselli, Matute, Pinto, & Ardila, 2006). It requires both the simultaneous processing of incoming and the retrieval or manipulation of retained information (Siegel & Ryan, 1989).…”

“…Several studies investigated the role of working memory in normally achieving children and children with DD (Bull, Espy, & Wiebe, 2008;D'Amico & Guarnera, 2005;Geary et al., 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 2000; Geary & Hoard, 2001;McLean & Hitch, 1999;Rosselli et al, 2006;Siegel & Ryan, 1989). Van der Sluis and colleagues (2005) showed that children with arithmetic disabilities performed worse on a task requiring the memorization of dynamic visual information -these results are consistent with other findings (McLean & Hitch, 1999), where lower performance of children with arithmetic disabilities on the Corsi Block Tapping task is reported.…”

A Neuropsychological Approach of Developmental Dyscalculia and a Screening Test Via a Web Application

“…Specifically, Developmental Dyscalculia is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects the ability of a child to learn arithmetic, despite normal intelligence, proper schooling, adequate environment, socioeconomic status, emotional stability and necessary motivation [2]. Children with dyscalculia are characterized by difficulties in learning and remembering arithmetic facts [3] as well as differences in executive calculation procedures and poor problem solving strategies [4]. Furthermore, dyscalculic students may present difficulties understanding simple number concepts, lack an intuitive grasp of numbers and have problems learning numerical facts and procedures [3].…”

“…Children with dyscalculia are characterized by difficulties in learning and remembering arithmetic facts [3] as well as differences in executive calculation procedures and poor problem solving strategies [4]. Furthermore, dyscalculic students may present difficulties understanding simple number concepts, lack an intuitive grasp of numbers and have problems learning numerical facts and procedures [3]. Specific Learning Disabilities involving mathematic skills usually become apparent later than reading and writing problems often at about the age of eight.…”