Comparing Two Cut-off Based Criteria While Investigating the Discriminatory Characteristics of a Tablet-Based Dyscalculia Screening Battery for 5-9 Age Group.

Abstract

Math skills are essential in academic, occupational, and scientific areas as well as in daily life activities. There are two existing models in screening dyscalculia: IQ-Achievement Discrepancy Model (DM), and Response to Instruction (RTI) model. In these models, two different cut-off based criteria (being 1 or 2 standard deviation below within their age groups, and being in the lower 5-10% group) are mainly used. The main purpose of this study is to compare these two different cut-off criteria, based on three sub-tests of Tablet-PC Based Dyscalculia Screening Battery (TAB-DSB) (Canonic Dot Counting-CDC, Symbolic Number Comparison-SNC and Mental Number Line-MNL). It is expected to show which criteria would yield the best discrimination in differentiating students who have dyscalculia tendency from the rest of the students in three sub-tests. The participants of the study included 316 volunteer 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year elementary school students. The results indicated that CDC, SNC, and MNL (MNL1, MNL2) tasks failed to discriminate the groups when the standard deviation rule (below, above, and within 1 standard deviation) was taken into consideration. On the other hand, these tasks were found to be effective in discriminating the groups when the lower 10% and the upper groups were compared.