The cerebellum-driven\xa0social basis of mathematics: implications for one-on-one tutoring of children with mathematics learning disabilities

High comorbidity rates have been reported between mathematical learning disabilities (MD) and reading and spelling disabilities (RSD). Research has identified skills related to math, such as number sense (NS) and visuospatial working memory (visuospatial WM), as well as to literacy, such as phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN) and verbal short-term memory (Verbal STM). In order to explain the high comorbidity rates between MD and RSD, 7–11-year-old children were assessed on a range of cognitive abilities related to literacy (PA, RAN, Verbal STM) and mathematical ability (visuospatial WM, NS). The group of children consisted of typically developing (TD) children (n = 32), children with MD (n = 26), children with RSD (n = 29), and combined MD and RSD (n = 43). It was hypothesized that, in line with the multiple deficit view on learning disorders, at least one unique predictor for both MD and RSD and a possible shared cognitive risk factor would be found to account for the comorbidity between the symptom dimensions literacy and math. Secondly, our hypotheses were that (a) a probabilistic multi-factorial risk factor model would provide a better fit to the data than a deterministic single risk factor model and (b) that a shared risk factor model would provide a better fit than the specific multi-factorial model. All our hypotheses were confirmed. NS and visuospatial WM were identified as unique cognitive predictors for MD, whereas PA and RAN were both associated with RSD. Also, a shared risk factor model with PA as a cognitive predictor for both RSD and MD fitted the data best, indicating that MD and RSD might co-occur due to a shared underlying deficit in phonological processing. Possible explanations are discussed in the context of sample selection and composition. This study shows that different cognitive factors play a role in mathematics and literacy, and that a phonological processing deficit might play a role in the occurrence of MD and RSD.

With increased technology use in mathematics classrooms, as well as the increased prevalence of online instruction, digital calculators and online games are two types of digital tools that support students with learning disabilities (LD) in elementary and middle school mathematics. Teachers need to understand the advantages and limitations of different options and factors that help determine which tool may be most beneficial to support the goals of the mathematics lesson as well as the individual needs of students with LD. When used appropriately and efficiently, digital mathematics tools, such as calculators and online games, can increase students’ conceptual understanding of mathematics content as well as their confidence and engagement in the mathematics classroom. This column presents a variety of virtual calculators and online math games, why they are effective, how they can be implemented, as well as a short scenario depicting one way the tool can be used in the classroom.

<p style="text-align:justify">The study aims at investigating basic level schoolteachers' awareness of their students' mathematics learning disability (MLD) in the context of Nepal. It is based on a mixed-method research design in that it combines both qualitative and quantitative approaches as appropriate. Using the stratified random sampling technique, 300 basic level mathematics teachers were selected from 150 basic level (grades 1-8) community and institutional schools representing the three significant ecological regions (the Mountain, the Hill, and the Terai) and demographic variables (gender, place of residence, and school type) from Province 1 of Nepal. A Mathematics Learning Disability Awareness Scale (MLDA-Scale), was developed and used to measure the basic level schoolteachers' awareness of their students' MLD. Besides, a semi-structured interview was conducted with the purposively selected basic level schoolteachers for the qualitative data. The basic level schoolteachers' awareness of MLD factor categories was calculated using descriptive statistics. Similarly, t-tests were conducted to examine the effects of the demographic variables. The qualitative data, however, were analyzed thematically. The results reveal that the majority of the basic level schoolteachers' knowledge toward their students' MLD was inadequate and that the demographic variables had no significant effects on the teachers' knowledge of their students' MLD. Finally, the study recommends developing the managerial practices regarding the MLD issue further.</p>

There has been a continuous debate on different criteria on assessment of mathematical learning disability (MLD). Originally, MLD was defined as an unexpected failure to acquire basic mathematics skills despite normal intelligence, adequate schooling, and absence of neurological or psychiatric disorders. This approach, based on a discrepancy between the intelligence and the academic skills, has been largely criticized. One of the strongest candidates to replace this approach has been the response-to-intervention (RTI) instruction model, where the focus has been in the student’s learning in optimal learning conditions, for example, when participating in an evidence-based intervention program. However, the RTI approach does not sufficiently take into account the individual factors that affect the responsiveness to a mathematical intervention and does not have effective algorithms for differential diagnosis of specific MLD and low attainment in mathematics. Therefore, a third alternative in assessment has focused on cognitive patterns of strengths and weaknesses (PSW). The PSW model offers several theoretical and empirical advances to the previous models. However, there is also strong evidence supporting a view that severe forms of MLD would stem from a core deficit that is independent of the comorbid, but individually varying, cognitive disorders. The selected approach also has direct implications for educational policy and practice in classrooms.

Learning Disabilities in Mathematics (LDM) or dyscalculia are a frequent and disruptive problem within schools. Nevertheless, this problem has received little attention from researchers and practitioners, if compared with the number of studies published on disabilities in reading. Therefore, teachers do not have enough guidance to help children overcome their difficulties. Consequently, educators, practitioners and teachers are in need ofsome guidelines which help them choose teaching methods that are adapted for children with LDM. This paper proposes an interventional framework for improving skills in children who show problems in learning basic mathematics. Concretely, it suggests some guidelines which are focused on number sense and problem solving, two of the most important mathematical areas.

In classroom teaching a teacher comes across several learning problems faced by students. Popularly referred to as ‘Learning Disability’, point towards those individuals who face problems relating to reading, writing, spelling and mathematics. It is a disorder which may occur in one or more of the processes of speech, language, reading, spelling, writing or mathematics. These problems faced by individuals can also adversely affect other skills like social skills etc. Mathematical Skills, the master of all skills, is the conceptual understanding of different mathematical relations and functions. If one has knowledge to use and apply mathematical skills in one's daily life, one would enjoy every phase and action of life. But if otherwise, then one will suffer in every activity of life and possibly will result in mathematical learning disability or ‘Dsycalculia’. Amid discrepancies between actual and expected performance of the child, dishearten them to compete in the competitive world. As they do not get proper attention towards their abilities, their hidden handicap tends to increase. This leads to breakdowns which turn out to be a hurdle in the path of academic progress. As a result the students face poor academic, behavioral and social problems. If these troubling concerns faced by primary school students are not known in time, then poor scholastic performance will be promoted in higher classes. Researches have proved that mathematical learning disability is more prevalent in school children than the other learning disabilities. A small amount of research studies throw light on abilities and inabilities of learning disabled. Therefore, this study is an effort to identify mathematical skills of learning disabled students at the primary level, so that all efforts are made to assess and repair this specific learning problem.

Little is known on the adult outcome and longitudinal trajectory of childhood developmental language disorders (DLD) and on the prognostic predictors. Seventeen men with a severe receptive DLD in childhood, reassessed in middle childhood and early adult life, were studied again in their mid-thirties with tests of intelligence (IQ), language, literacy, theory of mind and memory together with assessments of psychosocial outcome. They were compared with the non language disordered siblings of the DLD cohort to control for shared family background, adults matched to the DLD cohort on age and performance IQ (IQM group) and a cohort from the National Child Development Study (NCDS) matched to the DLD cohort on childhood IQ and social class. The DLD men had normal intelligence with higher performance IQ than verbal IQ, a severe and persisting language disorder, severe literacy impairments and significant deficits in theory of mind and phonological processing. Within the DLD cohort higher childhood intelligence and language were associated with superior cognitive and language ability at final adult outcome. In their mid-thirties, the DLD cohort had significantly worse social adaptation (with prolonged unemployment and a paucity of close friendships and love relationships) compared with both their siblings and NCDS controls. Self-reports showed a higher rate of schizotypal features but not affective disorder. Four DLD adults had serious mental health problems (two had developed schizophrenia). A receptive developmental language disorder involves significant deficits in theory of mind, verbal short-term memory and phonological processing, together with substantial social adaptation difficulties and increased risk of psychiatric disorder in adult life. The theoretical and clinical implications of the findings are discussed.

The orthography used in Panare examples in the work is a slightly modified form of the orthography adopted by the Venezuelan Ministry of Education, Department of Indigenous Affairs, for educational materials in Panare. This chapter illustrates several categories of phonological and morphophonological processes. Word-level primary stress is normally on the final syllable but in some cases is lexically marked elsewhere. Grammatical stress may override lexical stress. Additionally, secondary stress affects heavy syllables and may in an alternating pattern in sequences of light syllables. The process of syllable reduction, first noted by Mattei Muller (1981) is sensitive to stress and vowel quality. Various phonological processes are described, first those that affect consonants, then those that affect vowels. This analysis explains certain facts that would simply be classified as irregularities from a purely synchronic perspective. Finally, a few of the common “normal-speech” contractions are described. Keywords:grammatical stress; morphophonological processes; orthography; Panare; phonological processes; syllable reduction; vowel quality

Mining frequent sequential patterns from sequence databases has been a central research topic in data mining and various efficient mining sequential patterns algorithms have been proposed and studied. Recently, a novel sequential pattern mining research, called mining repetitive gapped subsequences, has attracted the attention of many researchers. However, the number of repetitive gapped subsequences generated by even these closed mining algorithms may be too large to understand for users, especially when support threshold is low. In this paper, we propose the problem of how to compress repetitive gapped sequential patterns. A novel distance measure of repetitive gapped sequential patterns and an efficient representative pattern checking scheme, δ-dominate sequential pattern checking are proposed. We also develop an efficient algorithm, CRGSgrow ( Compressing Repetitive Gapped Sequential pattern grow), including an efficient pruning strategy, SyncScan. An empirical study with both real and synthetic data sets clearly shows that the CRGSgrow has good performance.Keywordsrepetitive gapped sequential patterncompressing frequent patterns

Theory of Mind (ToM) is a social-cognitive skill that allows the understanding of the intentions, beliefs, and desires of others. There is a distinction between affective and cognitive ToM, with evidence showing that these processes rely on partially distinct neural networks. The role of the cerebellum in social cognition has only been rarely explored. In this study, we tested whether the cerebellum is necessary for cognitive and affective ToM performance. We investigated adults with traumatic brain injury (n = 193) and healthy controls (n = 52) using voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) and by measuring the impact on functional connectivity. First, we observed that damage to the cerebellum affected pure Cognitive ToM processing. Further, we found a lateralization effect for the role of the cerebellum in cognitive ToM with participants with left cerebellar injury performing worse than those with right cerebellar injury. Both VLSM and standard statistical analysis provided evidence that left cerebellar Crus I and lobule VI contributed to ToM processing. Lastly, we found that disconnection of the left thalamic projection and the left fronto-striatal fasciculus was associated with poor cognitive ToM performance. Our study is the first to reveal direct causal neuropsychological evidence for a role of the cerebellum in some but not all types of ToM, processing. It reinforces the idea that social cognition relies on a complex network functionally connected through white matter pathways that include the cerebellum. It supports evidence that the neural networks underpinning the different types of ToM can be differentiated.

تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى تعرف أثر استراتيجية التدريس بواسطة الأقران في تحسين المهارات الأساسية بالرياضيات لدى تلميذات صعوبات التعلّم، وتألفت عينة الدراسة من 42 تلميذة لديهنّ صعوبات تعلّم في الرياضيات، ملتحقات ببرنامج صعوبات التعلّم بمدرستي الابتدائية الثانية، والابتدائية السابعة والثلاثون في مدينة نجران بالمملكة العربية السعودية. تمّ اختيار إحدى المدرستين لتكون ضابطة والأخرى تجريبية بطريقة عشوائية، ولتحقيق أهداف الدراسة تمّ بناء اختبار لقياس بعض المهارات الأساسية في الرياضيات طُبّق على أفراد المجموعتين بطريقة قبليّة-بعديّة. تلقى أفراد المجموعة التجريبية تعليمهم من خلال تطبيق استراتيجية التدريس بواسطة الأقران لمدة خمسة أسابيع، في حين تلقى أفراد المجموعة الضابطة تعليمهم بالطريقة الاعتيادية. أظهرت النتائج وجود فروق ذات دلالة إحصائية بين متوسطات رتب أفراد المجموعتين الضابطة والتجريبية على اختبار الرياضيات البعدي لصالح أفراد المجموعة التجريبية، كما أشارت النتائج إلى عدم وجود فروق ذات دلالة إحصائية تُعزى لمتغيّر الصف الدراسي.

Behavioral studies have demonstrated that learning to read and write affects the processing of spoken language. The present study investigates the neural mechanism underlying the emergence of such orthographic effects during speech processing. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was used to tease apart two competing hypotheses that consider this orthographic influence to be either a consequence of a change in the nature of the phonological representations during literacy acquisition or a consequence of online coactivation of the orthographic and phonological representations during speech processing. Participants performed an auditory lexical decision task in which the orthographic consistency of spoken words was manipulated and repetitive TMS was used to interfere with either phonological or orthographic processing by stimulating left supramarginal gyrus (SMG) or left ventral occipitotemporal cortex (vOTC), respectively. The advantage for consistently spelled words was removed only when the stimulation was delivered to SMG and not to vOTC, providing strong evidence that this effect arises at a phonological, rather than an orthographic, level. We propose a possible mechanistic explanation for the role of SMG in phonological processing and how this is affected by learning to read.

In this paper we will suggest that impairments in domain‐specific functions may have wide‐ranging developmental effects which mimic domain‐general impairments. This may explain why ‘pure’ cases of developmental disorders are rare. The understanding of autism and dyslexia has been advanced by theories postulating failure of a specific mechanism against a background of unimpaired general processing. Impairment in the mechanisms underlying ‘theory of mind’ in autism, and ‘phonology’ in dyslexia, predict and explain the pattern of poor and good performance on a range of experimental and real‐life tasks. However, existing accounts deal largely with the on‐line effects of modular deficits, and can be criticised as not truly developmental. Here we attempt to trace developmental or down‐stream effects of specific impairments in mentalising and phonological processing. We argue that these modules act as vital gatekeepers in development. Important in this process is the interaction of cognition with socio‐cultural environment, an effect well‐illustrated by cross‐language differences in dyslexia. We claim that consideration of these developmental effects makes clear why postulating specific impairments may be sufficient for explaining more general deficits.

Pragmatic and executive dysfunction in schizophrenia

Introduction: Language processing (especially phonology) and speech motor control are disordered in stuttering. However, it is unclear how they are related based on the models of speech processing. The present study aimed to study non-word repetition, rhyme and alliteration judgment, and speech motor control and investigate their relationship in children who stutter (CWS) compared to typically developed children (TDC). Materials and Methods: Twenty-eight CWS (mean age=5.46 years) and 28 peers TDC (mean age=5.52 years) participated in this study. Phonological processing, according to the speech processing model, is divided into phonological input and output. Phonological input, phonological output, and speech motor control were assessed by rhyme and alliteration tasks, accurate phonological production during non-word repetition task, and Robbins-Klee oral speech motor protocol, respectively. The Pearson correlation coefficient, independent t-test, and Cohen’s d were used for data analysis. Results: Both non-word repetition and speech motor skills were significantly different in CWS than TDC (P<0.001). But rhyme and alliteration judgment were similar across groups (P>0.001). Phonological processing and speech motor control were not significantly correlated (P>0.001). Conclusion: Phonological processing (output), a level before articulation, and speech motor control are not correlated, but both are disordered in preschool CWS. Additionally, phonological processing (input) is similar in CWS and TDC. That is, phonological input is not affected by stuttering in CWS.