Internal Consistency and Stability of the CANTAB Neuropsychological Test Battery in Children

The Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) is a computerassessed test battery widely use in different populations. The internal consistency and one-year stability of CANTAB tests were examined in school-aged children. Two hundred-thirty children (57% girls) from 5 schools in the Jyväskylä school district in Finland participated in the study in spring 2011. The children completed the following CANTAB tests: a) visual memory (Pattern Recognition Memory [PRM] and Spatial Recognition Memory [SRM]), b) executive function (Spatial Span [SSP], Stockings of Cambridge [SOC], and Intra-Extra Dimensional Set Shift [IED]), and c) attention (Reaction Time [RTI] and Rapid Visual Inf…

Basic numeracy in children with specific language impairment: heterogeneity and connections to language.

Purpose This study examined basic numerical skills in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and how well linguistic factors explain the variance in these children’s number skills. Method The performance of children with SLI ( n = 29) was compared with that of typically developing children along a continuum ranging from preschool to 3rd grade ( n = 20, 47, 40, and 33). This facilitated both linguistic and educational age comparisons. To study number skills within the SLI group more closely, this group was divided into subgroups on the basis of their performance in verbal and nonverbal numerical skills. The performance of the different SLI subgroups on the linguistic and nonverbal…

Contributions of longitudinal studies to evolving definitions and knowledge of developmental dyscalculia

Abstract In the last 20 years, longitudinal studies have demonstrated that it is important to attend to the stability of mathematical performance over time as a facet of dyscalculia, that the manifestation of mathematics difficulties changes with development, and that individual differences in cognitive profiles and learning trajectories observed in children with mathematics difficulties implicate differences between dyscalculic and non-dyscalculic subgroups. Intra-individual differences over time, and external factors related to children's learning environments, also contribute to performance trajectories; moreover, these factors may explain the inconsistent performance profiles observed a…

Arithmetic disabilities with and without reading difficulties: A comparison of arithmetic errors

Arithmetic errors of 80 children with arithmetic disabilities, representing 3% of a population‐based sample, and of 80 sex‐ and age‐matched control children were systematically analyzed. In Analysis 1, covariance structure modeling (LISREL) was applied to analyze relations between reading, as measured by text reading accuracy and speed, and arithmetic error types. The results demonstrated that reading accuracy and speed were connected to errors in multiplication fact retrieval. In Analysis 2, a classification of children with arithmetic disabilities into subgroups by reading accuracy and speed difficulties revealed that children with dysfluent reading made more fact‐retrieval errors than di…

How physical activity, fitness, and motor skills contribute to math performance: Working memory as a mediating factor

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine whether physical activity, fitness and motor skills have indirect association with math performance via cognitive outcomes and if so, through which aspects of cognition? Methods This study comprised 311 6th–9th grade adolescents (12–17y [M age=14.0y], 59% girls) from seven schools throughout Finland in 2015. Math performance was measured via a teacher-rated math achievement and the Basic Arithmetic test. Cognitive functions were measured by broad cognitive test battery. Physical activity was assessed with a self-reported questionnaire and a hip-worn accelerometer. Aerobic fitness was estimated using a maximal 20-m shuttle run test, muscular f…

Preschool Children’s Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity, Subitizing, and Counting Skills as Predictors of Their Mathematical Performance Seven Years Later at School

This seven-year longitudinal study examined how children’s spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON), subitizing based enumeration, and counting skills assessed at five or six years predict their school mathematics achievement at 12 years. The participants were 36 Finnish children without diagnosed neurological disorders. The results, based on partial least squares modeling, demonstrate that SFON and verbal counting skills before school age predict mathematical performance on a standardized test for typical school mathematics in Grade 5. After controlling for nonverbal IQ, only SFON predict school mathematics. Subitizing-based enumeration skills have an indirect effect via number sequence s…

Linguistic and spatial skills predict early arithmetic development via counting sequence knowledge

Utilizing a longitudinal sample of Finnish children (ages 6-10), two studies examined how early linguistic (spoken vs. written) and spatial skills predict later development of arithmetic, and whether counting sequence knowledge mediates these associations. In Study 1 (N = 1,880), letter knowledge and spatial visualization, measured in kindergarten, predicted the level of arithmetic in first grade, and later growth through third grade. Study 2 (n = 378) further showed that these associations were mediated by counting sequence knowledge measured in first grade. These studies add to the literature by demonstrating the importance of written language for arithmetic development. The findings are …

Trail Making Test in assessing children with reading disabilities: a test of executive functions or content information.

The speed of performance on Part A, Part B, and on an experimental version containing alphabetical series (Part A Alphabetic) of the Trail Making Test was studied with 19 children with reading disabilities and 34 controls from Grades 4 to 6. When the test was used in discriminant profile fashion, children with reading disabilities showed a deficit compared with control children on Part B relative to Part A but did not relative to the new Part A Alphabetic. The results indicate that the performance of the children with reading disabilities on Part B is likely to be affected by their slowness on the alphabetical series. Based on these results we recommend that the speed of following the alph…

Computer-assisted Interventions on Basic Number Skills

Computer-assisted interventions (CAI) on basic number skills have been studied over the last 70 years. The technical development from large, room-sized, mainframe computers to handhelds is revising the school pedagogy in a similar fashion to what school books once did. Computers provide a tool for delivering instruction, but still the contents of CAI have followed on the ruling pedagogical trends of the time. The basic models of repetitive practice to gain arithmetic fluency and problem solving–oriented discovery learning can be found from CAI on numerical skills. The increasing knowledge about educational neuroscience has not changed these models, but turned the attention to the details in…

Dynamic Potential of Feedback in Self-Regulated Learning and Motivation of Children with Mathematical Learning Difficulties

Ovim istraživanjem želio se ispitati učinak vrste povratnih informacija (feedback-a) na učenje i motivaciju djece s teškoćama u učenju matematike. Procijenjena je izvedba 76-ero djece - polaznika petih razreda na zadacima računanja, kao i njihova motivacija za rješavanje matematičkih zadataka, s obzirom na vrstu povratne informacije: trenutnu korektivnu povratnu informaciju te odgođenu konvencionalnu povratnu informaciju. Rezultati istraživanja pokazali su da su djeca imala značajno bolji rezultat kada im je bila pružena trenutna korektivna povratna informacija, nego kada im je pružena odgođena konvencionalna povratna informacija. Rezultati također ukazuju da pružanje trenutne povratne info…

Core numerical skills for learning mathematics in children aged five to eight years – a working model for educators

The aim of this study was to model the most crucial numerical factors to the development of mathematical skills among children aged five to eight years (i.e. kindergarten, preschool, first and second graders). We categorised numerical skills into four main groups based on the results of longitudinal studies. A series of analyses of test batteries designed to measure the development of mathematical skills in children yielded results in support of this construct. Based on our findings we propose a working model for teachers of core numerical skills that focuses on four major factors: (1) symbolic and non-symbolic number sense; (2) understanding mathematical relations (early mathematical-logic…

Preventive Support for Kindergarteners Most At-Risk for Mathematics Difficulties: Computer-Assisted Intervention

Weaknesses in early number skills have been found to be a risk factor for later difficulties in mathematical performance. Nevertheless, only a few intervention studies with young children have been published. In this study, the responsiveness to early support in kindergarteners with most severe difficulties was examined with two different computer programs. Two intervention groups were matched by age, visuo-spatial, and phonological working memory, as well as early number skills. After a short and intensive computerized intervention, the results indicated significant intervention effects for verbal counting Wilcoxon ES (r) = 0.46, and dot counting fluency, r = 0.52, when practiced with Grap…

Early Cognitive Precursors of Children's Mathematics Learning Disability and Persistent Low Achievement: A 5-Year Longitudinal Study.

Mathematical difficulties have been distinguished as mathematics learning disability (MLD) and persistent low achievement (LA). Based on 1,880 Finnish children who were followed from kindergarten (age 6) to fourth grade, this study examined the early risk factors for MLD and LA. Distinct groups of MLD (6.0% of the sample) and LA (25.7%) children were identified on the basis of their mathematics performance between first and fourth grades with latent class growth modeling. Impairment in the same set of cognitive skills, including language, spatial, and counting skills, was found to underlie MLD and LA. The finding highlights the importance of monitoring mathematical development across the ea…

Verbal ordinal classification with multicriteria decision aiding

Abstract Professionals in neuropsychology usually perform diagnoses of patients’ behaviour in a verbal rather than in a numerical form. This fact generates interest in decision support systems that process verbal data. It also motivates us to develop methods for the classification of such data. In this paper, we describe ways of aiding classification of a discrete set of objects, evaluated on set of criteria that may have verbal estimations, into ordered decision classes. In some situations, there is no explicit additional information available, while in others it is possible to order the criteria lexicographically. We consider both of these cases. The proposed Dichotomic Classification (DC…

Mathematics Skills of Kosovar Primary School Children: A Special View on Children with Mathematical Learning Difficulties

The present study examined the development of mathematics skills of Kosovar primary school children in terms of their gender, living area, socio-economic status, and achievement level. A special emphasis was placed on longitudinal investigations of the development of mathemat-ics skills in children with learning difficulties in mathematics over a 2-year and 4-month period. Participants were 553 fourth-graders, 85 of whom identified with mathematical learning difficulties were classified into two subgroups: children with low mathematics achievement and children with limited mathematics ability. Results have shown that there were no gender differences in mathematics achievement. Children’s li…

Impaired parietal magnitude processing in developmental dyscalculia

Summary Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a specific learning disability affecting the acquisition of school-level mathematical abilities in the context of otherwise normal academic achievement, with prevalence estimates in the order of 3–6% [1] . Behavioural studies show deficits in elementary numerical processing among individuals with pure DD [2,3], indicating that deficits in higher-level mathematical skills may stem from impaired representation and processing of basic numerical magnitude. Adult neuropsychological and neuroimaging research points to the intraparietal sulcus as a key region for the representation and processing of numerical magnitude [4]. This raises the possibility of a…

Reliability and validity evidence of the early numeracy test for identifying children at risk for mathematical learning difficulties

Abstract This study investigated reliability and validity evidence regarding the Early Numeracy test (EN-test) in a sample of 1139 Swedish-speaking children (587 girls) in kindergarten (n = 361), first grade (n = 321), and second grade (n = 457). Structural validity evidence was established through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), which showed that a four-factor model fit the data significantly better than a one-factor or two-factor model. The known-group and cross-cultural validity were established through multigroup CFAs, finding that the four-factor model fit the gender, age and language groups equally well. Internal consistency for the test and sub-skills varied from good to excellen…

Feedback adaptation in web-based learning systems

Feedback provided by a learning system to its users plays an important role in web-based education. This paper presents an overview of feedback studies and then concentrates on the problem of feedback adaptation in web-based learning systems. We introduce our taxonomy of feedback concept with regard to its functions, complexity, intention, time of occurrence, way of presentation, and level and way of its adaptation. We consider what can be adapted in feedback and how to facilitate feedback adaptation in web-based learning systems.

Intranet organisaation sisäisessä viestinnässä : tapaus Kunn[at]ri

Dynamic Potential of Feedback in Self-Regulated Learning and Motivation of Children with Mathematical Learning Difficulties

The present study was designed to examine the effects of feedback conditions on learning and motivation of children identified with mathematical learning difficulties (MLDs). The performance of 76 fifth grade children on computational math skills and related task motivation was assessed. The groups of children were randomly assigned to one of two treatment conditions: immediate corrective feedback or delayed conventional feedback on two occasions. Results showed that children performed significantly better when they were provided with the immediate corrective feedback than when they were provided with the delayed conventional feedback. The findings suggest that provision of the immediate co…

Development of Counting Skills: Role of Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity and Subitizing-Based Enumeration

Children differ in how much they spontaneously pay attention to quantitative aspects of their natural environment. We studied how this spontaneous tendency to focus on numerosity (SFON) is related to subitizing-based enumeration and verbal and object counting skills. In this exploratory study, children were tested individually at the age of 4–5 years on these skills. Results showed 2 primary relationships in children's number skills development. Performance in a number sequence production task, which is closely related to ordinal number sequence without reference to cardinality, is directly associated with SFON. Second, the association of SFON and object counting skills, which require relat…