Dyscalculia: Students Burdened by blunders with numbers

Between 3 and 6% of schoolchildren suffer from an arithmetic-related learning disability.

Researchers at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich now show that these children are also more likely to exhibit deficits in reading and spelling than had been previously suspected.

Addition and subtraction, multiplication and division are the four basic operations in arithmetic, but for some children, learning these fundamental skills is particularly challenging.

Studies show that they have problems grasping the concepts of number, magnitude, and quantity, and that they do poorly when asked to estimate relative amounts.

In mathematics classes they consistently lag behind, although they have little difficulty in subjects. In other words, they suffer from a highly specific learning disorder, which psychologists call 'dyscalculia'.

In total, about 5% of second- to fourth-graders manifest the condition.

Depending on which arithmetical operation is tested, the prevalence of the disorder varies between 3 and 6%.

These figures emerge from a new study carried out by LMU researchers led by Professor Gerd Schulte-Körne, Director of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, which has just been published.

The data are based on tests carried out on 1633 third- and fourth-graders in schools in the Munich area.

An arithmetic-related deficit can have a drastic effect on overall scholastic achievement and on the psychological development of the children affected.

They are reluctant to go to school because they are afraid of being perceived as failures and embarrassing themselves in front of their classmates.

Wherever possible, they resort to the use of avoidance strategies and develop a negative self-image. In the end, their performance also suffers in subjects in which they are perfectly capable.

Their lack of mathematical skills usually precludes them from going on to the type of secondary school for which their level of intelligence would otherwise qualify them, and impedes their chances of higher education.

Indeed, so long as they continue to get bad marks in mathematics, their chances of even completing secondary school remain low.

A promising training model
Schulte-Körne complains that the problems of children who suffer from dyscalculia are often overlooked in everyday classroom routine.

Furthermore, unlike the situation in the case of dyslexic disorders, there is no provision in Bavarian schools for adapting the learning environment so as to alleviate the burden on these children, he adds.

"This is not an appropriate response to a disorder that has a biological basis," he says.

It would, for example, be perfectly possible to give such children more time to complete their classwork in mathematics, to give them extra help, and even to refrain altogether from assigning a formal mark to their performance in the subject.

The new study, however, also shows that developmental deficits in cognition can affect more than one learning domain.

The LMU researchers found the prevalence of so-called comorbidity to be far higher than has been previously recognized.

According to psychologist Dr. Kristina Moll, first author on the new report, about 57% of children who have an arithmetic-related learning disorder also suffer from a reading or spelling disability.

"These data were quite a surprise for us", Schulte-Körne confesses. "This finding forces us to think again about diagnostic procedures for specific learning disorders but, above all, about how we can more effectively treat these conditions," Moll adds.

"These children need intensive and specific training and support. Otherwise, they are in danger of failing to achieve the scholastic success that would be compatible with their general level of intelligence."

As Schulte-Körne points out, effective approaches to the mitigation of dyscalculia are already available. These, however, require intensive, long-term training programs for the children affected.

In addition, the new study reveals that gender also appears to play a role in determining susceptibility to specific learning disorders, says Schulte-Körne: "While deficits in spelling are more prevalent among boys, girls are more likely to display dyscalculia. Reading difficulties, on the other hand, appear to be equally prevalent in both sexes."

The reasons for these striking findings remain unclear. Schulte-Körne suspects that biological factors are responsible, given that the learning environments experienced by both sexes are very similar.

Gesturing with hands is a powerful tool for children's learning

A recent study from the University of Chicago's Department of Psychology showed that use of abstract gestures is a powerful tool for helping children understand and generalize mathematical concepts. 

Credit: Goldin-Meadow Lab

Children who use their hands to gesture during a math lesson gain a deep understanding of the problems they are taught, according to new research from University of Chicago's Department of Psychology.

Previous research has found that gestures can help children learn. This study in particular was designed to answer whether abstract gesture can support generalization beyond a particular problem and whether abstract gesture is a more effective teaching tool than concrete action.

"We found that acting gave children a relatively shallow understanding of a novel math concept, whereas gesturing led to deeper and more flexible learning," explained the study's lead author, Miriam A. Novack, a PhD student in psychology.

The study, "From action to abstraction: Using the hands to learn math," is published online by Psychological Science.

The researchers taught third-grade children a strategy for solving one type of mathematical equivalence problem, for example, 4 + 2 + 6 = ____ + 6.

They then tested the students on similar mathematical equivalence problems to determine how well they understood the underlying principle.

The researchers randomly assigned 90 children to conditions in which they learned using different kinds of physical interaction with the material.

In one group, children picked up magnetic number tiles and put them in the proper place in the formula.

For example, for the problem 4 + 2 + 6 = ___ + 6, they picked up the 4 and 2 and placed them on a magnetic whiteboard.

Another group mimed that action without actually touching the tiles, and a third group was taught to use abstract gestures with their hands to solve the equations.

In the abstract gesture group, children were taught to produce a V-point gesture with their fingers under two of the numbers, metaphorically grouping them, followed by pointing a finger at the blank in the equation.

The children were tested before and after solving each problem in the lesson, including problems that required children to generalize beyond what they had learned in grouping the numbers.

For example, they were given problems that were similar to the original one, but had different numbers on both sides of the equation.

Children in all three groups learned the problems they had been taught during the lesson. But only children who gestured during the lesson were successful on the generalization problems.

Susan Goldin-Meadow

"Abstract gesture was most effective in encouraging learners to generalize the knowledge they had gained during instruction, action least effective, and concrete gesture somewhere in between," said senior author Susan Goldin-Meadow, the Beardsley Ruml Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology.

"Our findings provide the first evidence that gesture not only supports learning a task at hand but, more importantly, leads to generalization beyond the task."

"Children appear to learn underlying principles from their actions only insofar as those actions can be interpreted symbolically."

More information: Miriam A. Novack, Eliza L. Congdon, Naureen Hemani-Lopez, and Susan Goldin-Meadow. "From Action to Abstraction: Using the Hands to Learn Math." Psychological Science 0956797613518351, first published on February 6, 2014 DOI: 10.1177/0956797613518351

Carol Vorderman's Online Maths School

Children with Dyspraxia have problem with coordination and movement, so it is important when they have a problem like tying shoe laces or even playing sport is to keep practicing until they get it right.

Clearly, this seem simple but it is also important not to stress the child, these children will get easily stressed and its important to make it a game and not to show any failure, so its important to approach any activities is little stress as possible and there is no failure but fun.

You might say this is easier said than done. If a child has difficult learning to tye shoe laces, you simply get them to learn little put often and give them a reward to learning so there is reason for their success.
Simple techniques:-

• Little but often
• Make it fun
• Goal for achieve at the end of each session of trying
• Goal for achievement when they reach the end goal
• Make it fun (don't make it stressful, if the child starts to get stressed stop and do something completely different)

For more information go to the Dyspraxia Advice website

Teaching Number Bonds

Number bonds.
An extract from the SJBWriting blog:
 
"We all use them in our adult life without even realising it. When adding up items in our basket at the supermarket, we know that 3p and 7p is 10p, and that 2x 50p is £1.

When we buy something for £5.60 at the market and hand over a £10 note, we know that £5.60 + 40p is £6 and another £4 makes £10, so we know to expect £4.60 change.

Knowing our number bonds is extremely useful, but a lot of children struggle to learn them.

Over the years I have successfully taught many children how to remember their number bonds. As with times tables, the key is to find multi-sensory ways to teach, and to make practising fun.

Some children respond very well to visual clues, and to help these I use colour sticks.

These are strips marked out in 10 sections and coloured in contrasting colours, so that children can see clearly that 2 red squares plus 8 green squares equals 10 squares altogether, and that 8 green squares plus 2 red squares also equals 10 squares altogether.

They are small enough to hold in the hand, and I tend to use them in conjunction with other methods. The children I tutor find them really useful to refer to during games.

Snap and pelmanism are always popular games, and I have made two sets of cards for this. The first set is colour-coded, so when the children turn the cards over there is a visual clue as to whether the two cards add up to 10.

When they turn over the first card, I encourage them to work out what number they need to find to make 10.

When the children are a little more confident I switch to the black and white ones to remove the visual clue, but we still play the same games to keep some familiarity."

If you find this interesting and want to read more of this article, go to SJBWriting

An Introduction to Letters, Numbers and Geography on the Apple iPad - Montessorium

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