Individual differences in basic arithmetic skills in children with and without developmental language disorder: Role of home numeracy experiences

Abstract

The present study investigated the role of kindergarten home numeracy experiences in predicting individual differences in second-grade basic arithmetic (i.e., small problem sizes and large problem sizes) among children with developmental language disorders (DLD) and their peers with normal language achievement (NLA), after controlling for kindergarten cognitive and linguistic capacities and first-grade basic arithmetic. Forty children with DLD and 103 children with NLA were tested on cognitive, linguistic, and basic arithmetic skills, and their parents filled in a questionnaire on home numeracy activities and numeracy expectations. The results showed that children with DLD scored below their peers with NLA on basic arithmetic skills, with larger group differences on arithmetic with large problem sizes than small problem sizes. Furthermore, for both groups of children, home numeracy experiences were positively related to arithmetic with large, but not small problem sizes, suggesting that the role of home numeracy in basic arithmetic might be restricted to those arithmetic skills that children have not fully mastered yet.