eMedicineLive

It has been found that 6 to 14% of children who have been provided with adequate learning opportunities and who otherwise perform well in all other subjects, some how underperform in mathematics. Such children are said to be suffering from mathematical learning disability (MLD) and may face lifelong difficulties in things as varied as job attainment and success, financial decision making, health care risk assessment and social activities.

 

According to Dr. Mazzocco, Director of the Maths Skill Development Project at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and the leader of a new study, impaired acuity of the Approximate Number System contributes to Mathematical Learning Disability. It has been found that children with a confirmed MLD have a markedly inaccurate number sense as compared to other fellow students.

 

Dr. Mazzocco and his team tested 71 children who were a part of a 10 year longitudinal study of math achievement, for their sense of numbers. Based on the results of the 10 years long study, they were classified as having either a MLD, below average, average or above average math achievement. The students, who were all 9th graders, were then asked to complete two number tasks. In the first task, students were shown spatially intermixed arrays of blue and yellow dots on a computer screen for 200 ms.  They were asked to indicate which array was more numerous by pressing a color-coded key. In the second test, the students were shown arrays of 9, 12 or 15 yellow dots for 200 ms, too rapidly to permit counting, and then they were asked to verbally estimate how many dots were present. The performance of the students was compared. It was found that students with MLD performed poorly in both the tests, as compared to their peers. The study suggests that an intuitive sense of numbers, which is present since infancy, contributes to a better development of mathematical abilities in later life. Children, who lack this intuition, may develop MLD.

 

However, the researchers have stressed that not all children who face difficulty in mathematics have a poor intuitive sense of numbers. It may also result from other factors such as a deficient spatial reasoning or working memory. Moreover, this number sense can be developed by more practice, or different kinds of practice.

 

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