Arithmetic in developmental cognitive disabilities.
Expect arithmetic to be a relative weakness in most children with dyslexia, DLD, ADHD, or autism; probe language, memory, and executive skills when math stalls.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Dowker (2020) read every paper on math in kids with dyslexia, DLD, ADHD, or autism.
The review pulled data from hundreds of studies. It looked at why these kids often struggle with numbers.
What they found
Most kids with these diagnoses hit a wall in arithmetic.
The wall is built from the same bricks: weak language, poor memory, and shaky executive skills.
If any of those three skills lag, math usually lags too.
How this fits with other research
Tang et al. (2023) show dyslexic kids also have a narrow visual attention span. This adds another brick to the wall Ann describes.
Iversen et al. (2021) and Tonizzi et al. (2022) both link poor executive skills to autism plus ADHD. Their data back Ann’s claim that executive skills drive math trouble.
Miltenberger et al. (2013) find dyslexic kids learn sequences more slowly. This supports Ann’s memory-brick explanation.
Flapper et al. (2013) and Faso et al. (2016) look at language and writing instead of math. Their deficits line up with Ann’s language-brick idea.
Why it matters
When a learner stalls on word problems, don’t drill more facts. First check language, memory, and executive skills. A quick probe in each area tells you where to intervene.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This paper reviews and discusses research on arithmetical strengths and weaknesses in children with specific developmental cognitive disabilities. It focusses on children with dyslexia, developmental language disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism. In general, studies show that arithmetical weaknesses are commoner in children with any of these disorders than in controls. Autism is sometimes associated with specific strengths in arithmetic; but even in autism, it is commoner for arithmetic to be a relative weakness than a relative strength. There may be some genetic reasons why there is an overlap between mathematical difficulties and other developmental learning difficulties; but much of the reason seems to be that specific aspects of arithmetic are often influenced by other factors, including language comprehension, phonological awareness, verbal and spatial working memory and long-term memory, and executive functions. The findings discussed here will be discussed in relation to Pennington's (2006) Multiple Deficit Model.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2020 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2020.103778