Acquisition of Mathematical and Linguistic Skills in Children With Learning Difficulties.

Nurit Viesel-Nordmeyer,Ute Ritterfeld,Wilfried Bos

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.793796

Nurit Viesel-Nordmeyer, Ute Ritterfeld + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.793796

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Abstract

Comorbid learning difficulties in linguistic and mathematical skills often emerge in primary school age. The cause of coinciding of both learning difficulties during children’s development spanning pre- and primary-school age is not yet well understood. To address this research gap, we used data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS; n = 301) of four groups of children which were categorized according to their skill levels in pre-school age: children with learning difficulties isolated in linguistic skills (LD), children with learning difficulties isolated in mathematical skills (MD), children with learning difficulties combined in linguistic and mathematical skills (MD/LD), and children with typical development in both skills (TA). Computing univariate and repeated measures ANCOVAs we compared the mathematical and linguistic development of the four groups of children (LD, MD, LD/MD, and TA) spanning age four to ten. Results reveal a partial catch-up in linguistic skills (lexical, grammatical) for children with LD. In contrast, children with MD did not overcome their mathematical competence gap in comparison with TA and LD. Moreover, children with MD showed a decrease in grammatical skills during transition in primary school. Further, children with MD/LD displayed the weakest performance in linguistic and mathematical skills during pre- and primary-school age in general. However, after controlling for working memory, initial performance differences between the groups decreased in favor of MD/LD. The relation between linguistic skills and mathematical skills in persisting learning difficulties as well as the specific role of working memory are discussed.

Highlights

Many primary-school children experience difficulties meeting linguistic and mathematical requirements even if they have not been diagnosed with an intellectual disability
The following research questions were defined: 1) Does mathematical and linguistic development differ between subgroups of children with domain-specific, combined, or without any learning difficulties? We aim to identify which group carries the highest risk for persistent difficulties
Using longitudinal data of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), the present study sought to clarify the following interrelated issues under control of background variables: First, we wanted to investigate whether mathematical and linguistic development differs between subgroups of children with domain-specific, combined, and without any learning difficulties as identified in pre-school age

Summary

Introduction

Many primary-school children experience difficulties meeting linguistic and mathematical requirements even if they have not been diagnosed with an intellectual disability. Coinciding Math and Linguistic Difficulties relationship between the acquisition of mathematical and linguistic skills Researchers found this close association in children with specific language disorders (Durkin et al, 2013) and in children undergoing second language acquisition or from a lower socioeconomic background (Demir et al, 2015). A lower socioeconomic background, which was already identified as responsible for input-dependent disadvantages in linguistic achievement during school age (e.g., Demir et al, 2015), contributes to the risk for cumulative academic learning difficulties in both linguistic and mathematical skills (Aro et al, 2009)

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