Abstract
The functional origin of Mathematical Learning Disability (MLD), an impairment affecting mathematics learning, remains controversial. We aimed to study the number sense deficit hypothesis in children with MLD. We explored the processing of non-symbolic numbers in Quebec French-speaking 8‒9-year-old children with three non-symbolic tasks (number comparison, number matching and dot set selection task). Results showed that children with MLD were as successful as typically developing children in a comparison task, but less successful in a matching task. Their performance in numerical re-production was also similar to that of typically developing children for large (10-99) numerosities, while they were less successful in transcoding small (1-4) and medium (5-9) numerosities. Children with MLD also presented with general cognitive and reading difficulties. Results suggest a deficit in processing small and medium numerosities in children with MLD that could be largely attributed to their poorer cognitive skills.
Highlights
The functional origin of Mathematical Learning Disability (MLD), an impairment affecting mathematics learning, remains controversial
We investigated the number sense deficit hypothesis in children with MLD through an assessment of their abilities to process non-symbolic numerosities
This study addressed the following research questions: 1) Do children with MLD present with a number sense deficit? 2) Do children with MLD present with a specific deficit affecting the OTS necessary to subitize very small numerosities or the Approximate Numerical System (ANS) necessary to estimate large numerosities? And 3) Is the numerical deficit observed in children with MLD in relation with cognitive and/or written language deficit?
Summary
The functional origin of Mathematical Learning Disability (MLD), an impairment affecting mathematics learning, remains controversial. According to von Aster and Shalev (2007) and Feigenson, Dehaene, and Spelke (2004), both the OTS and ANS are important for developing arithmetic abilities Other researchers, such as Carey (2001, 2004) and Butterworth (1999, 2005), postulated that only the OTS is essential for understanding cardinality of sets. According to the triple-code model, MLD is a “number sense” deficit resulting from an impaired analogical code while, according to the four-step developmental model of number acquisition, it results from an impairment of the inherited coresystem representation of magnitude Such a deficit would lead to difficulty processing non-symbolic number representations and impaired mental numerical representations, and would cause problems in the comparison, identification and estimation of numbers. Non-symbolic number processing was explored in 8- to 9-year-old children
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