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…
A pilot study of the effects of RightStart instruction on early numeracy skills of children with specific language impairment
This pilot study investigated the effects of an early numeracy program, RightStart Mathematics (RS), on Finnish kindergartners with specific language impairment (SLI). The study applied a pre-test-instruction-post-test design. The children with SLI (n=9, Mage=82.11 months) received RS instruction two to three times a week for 40 min over seven months, which replaced their business-as-usual mathematics instruction. Mathematical skill development among children with SLI was examined at the individual and group levels, and compared to the performance of normal language-achieving age peers (n=32, Mage=74.16 months) who received business-as-usual kindergarten mathematics instruction. The childre…
A Review of Early Numeracy Interventions for Children at Risk in Mathematics
This study reviewed early numeracy interventions for four- to seven-year-old children at risk for mathematics difficulties. The search yielded 19 peer-reviewed studies with pre- and post-treatment control designs. The interventions were categorised as either core or supplemental instruction. The study analysed the effectiveness and identified the pedagogical components of the interventions: setting, duration, numeracy content used for intervention training and progress measurement, conductor and professional developmental support offered, and instructional design features. The interventions showed, to various degrees, the promising effect of improving the early numeracy skills of at-risk ch…
Achievement emotions and arithmetic fluency : Development and parallel processes during the early school years
This study investigated the developmental trajectories and interrelationships of mathematics-related achieve-ment emotions and arithmetic fluency from first to third grade, and the effects of these on third grade mathe-matics performance. Participants were 232 Norwegian students. Students' emotions and arithmetic fluency were measured four times and mathematics performance once. Applying latent growth curve modeling, developmental patterns of decreasing enjoyment and increasing boredom were observed over time. The mean level of enjoyment remained fairly high, and of both boredom and anxiety quite low. Individual differences were observed in both the initial levels and development of all emo…