The specific disorder of arithmetic skills. Prevalence studies in a rural and an urban population sample and their clinico-neuropsychological validation

Abstract

There is an often noted lack of research in the field of disorders of arithmetic skills. The present study assessed the prevalence in both an urban and a rural population sample of German schoolchildren, using standardized academic achievement tests. Eight school classes of third graders in each area were examined (n = 181,182; respectively). We found that 6.6 % (n = 12) of the rural and 6.59 % (n = 12) of the urban school children performed significantly worse in arithmetic than in their spelling tests. Since the diagnostic criteria for the Specific disorder of arithmetical skills and their significance are widely discussed, we attempted in a second step of the study to validate the diagnosis of the Specific disorder of arithmetical skills from a neuropsychological and medical viewpoint. For the validation we assessed clinical data, imaging and neurophysiologic studies as well as a neuropsychological test battery. Nine and five of the children, respectively, were available for this further evaluation. Although the majority of these probands (n = 10) had distinct arithmetic deficits, only three of them met the full diagnostic criteria of the ICD-10 for a Specific disorder of arithmetic skills. In a last step, we compared the data of both studies. Our data strongly support a thorough cliniconeurological, neuropsychological and academic assessment of students with a suspected Specific disorder of arithmetic skills. The current diagnostic criteria should be reconsidered and possibly modified towards a more psychopathologic definition. We stress the need that the condition becomes better known among all professions concerned with the care of children, as difficulties with acquiring arithmetic skills should be detected and approached appropriately as early as possible. The imperative demand of future empiric research is emphasized.

Number Processing and Calculation in Brazilian Children Aged 7-12 Years

“…The limitation of the present study is that the sample included children from two cities of the Sao Paulo State (Assis and Ourinhos), which restrict in part the generalization of the results, however, the results were not completely discrepant of the previous normative studies with ZAREKI and Zareki-R in general aspects (Dellatolas et al, 2000;Hein et al, 2000;Koumoula et al, 2004;von Aster, 2000;Rotzer et al, 2009). A present goal from the authors is to investigate if the current profile is equivalent in different regions of the country and include children at age 6 because recently Brazilian law anticipated the beginning of the 1 st grade of the primary school officially from age 7 to age 6; whereas for younger children, in SANTOS, SILVA, RIBEIRO, DIAS, FRIGÉRIO, DELLATOLAS, AND VON ASTER preschool level, seems to be more suitable to assess mathematical skills by the Zareki-K (Weinhold-Zulauf, Schweiter, & von Aster, 2003), Kindergarten adapted version in Portuguese by Santos, Paschoalini, and Molina (2006).…”

“…On the other hand, socio-cultural, pedagogical, and linguistic factors may affect both number processing and calculation (Dellatolas, von Aster, Willardino-Braga, Meier, & Deloche, 2000;Gross-Tsur, Manor, & Shalev, 1996;Hein, Bzufka, & Neumärker, 2000;Koumoula et al, 2004). In contrast, studies showed that working memory is culture free of socioeconomic status and environmental aspects (Engel, Santos, & Gathercole, 2008;Koumoula et al, 2004;Santos & Bueno, 2003;Santos, Mello, Bueno, & Dellatolas, 2005).…”

“…The aetiology of DD is multi-factorial and includes genetic predisposition, neurological disturbances, environmental, and psychological factors (Shalev, 2004). Hein et al (2000) investigated the prevalence of arithmetic impairment in urban and rural children using the ZAREKI; they found a similar prevalence (around 6%) between simple arithmetic and reading and spelling disorders. In their study children with DD showed lower scores than their counterparts; besides, the discrepancy between the mean scores and standard deviation suggested that boys performed better than girls.…”

The prevalence of specific learning disorder in mathematics and comorbidity with other developmental disorders in primary school‐age children

“…Nevertheless, the DSM‐5 does not specify gender differences in SLDM. The most common finding reported in the literature is that of no gender difference (e.g., Desoete, Roeyers, & De Clercq, ; Devine et al ., ; Gross‐Tsur et al ., ; Hein, Bzufka, & Neumärker, ; Koumoula et al ., ; Lewis et al ., ; Mazzocco & Myers, ). Nevertheless, some studies did report gender differences, although these studies were inconsistent in whether they reported a higher prevalence of maths learning difficulties in girls (Dirks, Spyer, van Lieshout, & de Sonneville, ; Gross‐Tsur et al ., ; Landerl & Moll, ; Moll et al ., ) or boys (Badian, ; Barbaresi et al ., ; Ramaa & Gowramma, ; Reigosa‐Crespo et al ., ).…”

An Epidemiological Study of Number Processing and Mental Calculation in Greek Schoolchildren

“…Sociodemographic factors (Dellatolas, von Aster, Willadino-Braga, Meier, & Deloche, 2000;Gross-Tsur et al, 1996;Hein, Bzufka, & Neumaerker, 2000;O'Hare et al, 1991) and educational system factors (Dellatolas et al, 2000; International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement, 1996;Reusser, 2000;Shalev, Manor, Amir, & Gross-Tsur, 1993) seem to play an important role in the development of numerical competence in children who manifest difficulties with mathematics. For this reason, the present study gathered epidemiological data from a Greek school population and compared them to data from other countries.…”