Mathematical skills in heritage bilingual children with and without developmental dyscalculia: A comparative study.
Low-language math tasks keep you from mistaking second-language limits for dyscalculia in bilingual kids.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Bonifacci et al. (2026) compared math skills in heritage bilingual children with dyscalculia to monolingual peers with the same diagnosis.
They used low-language number-sense tasks to separate true math problems from second-language effects.
What they found
Overall scores were the same for both groups, but bilingual kids outperformed on number-sense items.
When tasks needed more English, lower language skill dragged math scores down.
How this fits with other research
Peters et al. (2020) found no magnitude deficit in monolingual dyscalculic children, only spatial-skill gaps. Paola’s bilingual sample shows the opposite: strong number sense but language-linked weakness on verbal math. The clash disappears when you see the first study tested monolinguals while the second tested heritage bilinguals who lean on language-free magnitude systems.
Kleemans et al. (2020) tracked bilingual fifth-graders longitudinally and showed that both basic and advanced language skills predict later geometry and fraction growth. Paola’s cross-sectional results echo this language-math tie but add that dyscalculia assessment must strip away language load to avoid false positives.
Schwenk et al. (2017) meta-analysis concluded that slow symbolic comparison speed, not the distance effect, flags math difficulties. Paola’s use of low-language number-sense tasks aligns with this marker while showing bilingual kids can shine on these exact measures.
Why it matters
If you test a bilingual child on wordy math problems, you may mis-label limited English as dyscalculia. Swap in number comparison, dot arrays, or other low-language tasks to get a true picture. Monday-morning move: add a one-minute symbolic comparison probe to your assessment battery and interpret poor verbal-math scores cautiously until you check language history.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study examined how basic numeracy skills relevant for identifying developmental dyscalculia (DD) differ between heritage bilingual (HB) children and monolingual peers, given the well-established links between language experience and numerical cognition. We compared sociolinguistic background, cognitive abilities, and mathematical performance in 311 primary school children, divided into four groups: HBs with a Specific Learning Disorder in mathematics (SLD-DD; n = 72), HBs with typical development (TD; n = 86), monolinguals with SLD-DD (n = 56), and monolinguals with TD (n = 97). Parents provided detailed language-history information, and children completed standardized assessments of nonverbal IQ, working memory, processing speed, and mathematical skills across numerical knowledge, calculation, and number sense. Controlling for socioeconomic status (SES) and listening comprehension as a proxy for L2 proficiency, results showed that HB children with SLD-DD exhibited numeracy difficulties comparable to monolinguals with SLD-DD but performed better in number-sense tasks, particularly in the triplets task, suggesting a possible bilingual advantage in this domain. HB children with SLD-DD also displayed greater dominance in Italian than typically developing HBs, who showed a more balanced bilingual profile. Among typically developing children, HBs underperformed monolingual peers on linguistically demanding tasks but performed similarly on tasks with limited verbal load. SES was related only to nonverbal cognitive functioning, whereas listening comprehension significantly covaried with all verbally mediated tasks. Overall, the findings underscore the importance of considering both SES and L2 language skills when assessing mathematical performance in bilingual learners and highlight the need for targeted support in language-heavy mathematical contexts.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2026 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2025.105189