Abstract
ABSTRACT.Brazilian students’ mathematical achievement was repeatedly observed to fall below average levels of mathematical attainment in international studies such as PISA.Objective: In this article, we argue that this general low level of mathematical attainment may interfere with the diagnosis of developmental dyscalculia when a psychometric criterion is used establishing an arbitrary cut-off (e.g., performance<percentile 10) may result in misleading diagnoses.Methods: Therefore, the present study evaluated the performance of 706 Brazilian school children from 3rd to 5th grades on basic arithmetic operations addition, subtraction, and multiplication.Results: In line with PISA results, children presented difficulties in all arithmetic operations investigated. Even after five years of formal schooling, less than half of 5th graders performed perfectly on simple addition, subtraction, or multiplication problems.Conclusions: As such, these data substantiate the argument that the sole use of a psychometric criterion might not be sensible to diagnose dyscalculia in the context of a generally low performing population, such as Brazilian children of our sample. When the majority of children perform poorly on the task at hand, it is hard to distinguish atypical from typical numerical development. As such, other diagnostic approaches, such as Response to Intervention, might be more suitable in such a context.
Highlights
Mathematics is an important predictor of scientific and technological development, which is important for success in competitive global economies.[1]
We evaluated the performance of Brazilian children on basic arithmetic operations
Considering evidence showing that Brazilian students perform poorly in mathematics more generally, we aimed at evaluating the feasibility of diagnosing dyscalculia using the psychometric criterion
Summary
Mathematics is an important predictor of scientific and technological development, which is important for success in competitive global economies.[1]. PISA results showed another alarming result: the upper half of Brazilian students (i.e., performing above percentile 50) still performed worse than the lower half of students (i.e., performing below percentile 50) from countries scoring highest in PISA 2018 such as South Korea, Finland, and Canada.[7]
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