Memory as a factor in the computational efficiency of dyslexic children with high abstract reasoning ability

Do weak phonological representations impact on arithmetic development? A review of research into arithmetic and dyslexia

“…Steeves (1983) demonstrated that dyslexic children (aged 10-14 years) with high intellectual ability performed more poorly on a written arithmetic test than normally developing children who were of similar intellectual ability. However, Steeves (1983) was unable to demonstrate that dyslexic children with average intellectual ability have arithmetic difficulties, because of methodological weaknesses in the study. The control group, which she compared the dyslexic children with average intellectual ability to, had higher intellectual ability.…”

The mathematical abilities of dyslexic 10-year-olds

“…In the Matrices test, they were required to identify the correct pattern (from a choice of nine) that correctly filled a given space. The four supplementary tests comprised the Recall of Digits item from the British Ability Scales (Elliott, Murray, & Pearson, 1979, 1983 and three items later published as part of the Bangor Dyslexia Test (Miles, 1982(Miles, , 1997, viz. Left-Right, Months Forward, and Months Reversed.…”

“…The children were given a test of single-word recognition, a reading comprehension test (the Edinburgh Reading Test, 1985), a spelling test, two tests of intelligence (the Similarities and Matrices tests from the British Ability Scales) (Elliott, Murray, & Pearson, 1979, 1983, and four so-called "supplementary" tests aimed at picking out dyslexics in the sense of those with specific developmental dyslexia (SDD). In the Similarities test, the children were presented with three words (horse, cow, and sheep); they then had to say how the three were alike and give a fourth example of the same kind.…”

“…"borrowing in two columns difficult," "lots of procedures to remember, .... remembering stages and at the same time the size of the numbers," "there is a lot to keep track of and they easily get lost"). The importance of memory for some aspects of mathematics was also emphasized by Steeves (1983). That the great majority of dyslexics have problems of immediate memory is now well established and is probably a consequence of their phonological difficulties, their slowness m processing speech sounds.…”

“…Research that systematically compares dyslexic and nondyslexic children on mathematical tasks has been reported by Joffe (1981), Steeves (1983), Miles (1993), Turner Ellis, Miles, and Wheeler (1996), and Leong and Jerred (2001). The balance of evidence suggests, not that some dyslexics are weak at mathematics in general and others not, but that all of them are weak at certain aspects of mathematics.…”