Abstract
Several studies have shown that Executive Functioning (EF) is a unique predictor of mathematics performance. However, whether or not children with mathematics difficulties (MD) experience deficits in EF remains unclear. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine if Chinese children with MD experience deficits in EF. We assessed 23 children with MD (9 girls, mean age = 10.40 years), 30 children with reading difficulties and MD (RDMD; 12 girls, mean age = 10.82 years), and 31 typically-developing (TD) peers (16 girls, mean age = 10.41 years) on measures of inhibition (Color-Word Stroop, Inhibition), shifting of attention (Planned Connections, Rapid Alternating Stimuli), working memory (Digit Span Backwards, Listening Span), processing speed (Visual Matching, Planned Search), reading (Character Recognition, Sentence Verification), and mathematics (Addition and Subtraction Fluency, Math Standard Achievement Test). The results of MANOVA analyses showed first that the performance of the MD children in all EF tasks was worse than their TD peers. Second, with the exception of the shifting tasks in which the MD children performed better than the RDMD children, the performance of the two groups was similar in all measures of working memory and inhibition. Finally, covarying for the effects of processing speed eliminated almost all differences between the TD and MD groups (the only exception was Listening Span) as well as the differences between the MD and RDMD groups in shifting of attention. Taken together, our findings suggest that although Chinese children with MD (with or without comorbid reading difficulties) experience significant deficits in all EF skills, most of their deficits can be accounted by lower-level deficits in processing speed.
Highlights
Several studies have reported that approximately 20% of school-age children experience mathematics difficulties (MD; see Gross-Tsur et al, 1996; Landerl and Moll, 2010; Geary, 2011; Moll et al, 2014)
Post hoc analyses showed that the typically developing (TD) group performed better than the MD and reading difficulties and MD (RDMD) groups in both Expressive Attention and Inhibition
Post hoc analyses showed that the TD group performed better than the MD and RDMD groups in both Planned Connections and Rapid Alternating Stimuli (RAS)
Summary
Several studies have reported that approximately 20% of school-age children experience mathematics difficulties (MD; see Gross-Tsur et al, 1996; Landerl and Moll, 2010; Geary, 2011; Moll et al, 2014). Several studies with typically developing (TD) children have shown that these three EF skills predict (jointly or independently) mathematics performance across a wide range of ages (e.g., Espy et al, 2004; Blair and Razza, 2007; Clark et al, 2010; Lan et al, 2011; Monette et al, 2011; van der Ven et al, 2012; McClelland et al, 2014; Viterbori et al, 2015; Chung et al, 2016; Purpura et al, 2017; see Friso-van den Bos et al, 2013; Yeniad et al, 2013, for evidence from meta-analyses). There is some evidence that poor EF correlates with mathematics learning disabilities (e.g., Toll et al, 2011; Willoughby et al, 2016; Morgan et al, 2017)
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