Clinical and Cognitive Characteristics Associated with Mathematics Problem Solving in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Most high-functioning teens with ASD struggle with applied math, and their perceptual-reasoning level tells you how hard the task will feel.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team tested 36 high-functioning teens with ASD and 36 typical teens.
Each teen took math word-problem tests and a full IQ battery.
The goal was to see who had math gifts, who had math trouble, and what skills best predicted success.
What they found
Only 3 teens with ASD showed math giftedness.
Twenty-two teens with ASD had clear math disability.
Perceptual reasoning scores, not verbal scores, were the strongest predictor of who could solve applied math problems.
How this fits with other research
Bae et al. (2015) found the same pattern one year earlier: kids with ASD scored lower on word problems than typical peers.
Whitehouse et al. (2014) showed that high-functioning autism also hurts verbal problem-solving speed, but that study looked at language tasks, not math.
Ziermans et al. (2017) adds that weak verbal working memory links to odd language in ASD teens. Together, the three papers show that both perceptual and verbal skills matter, but for different parts of problem solving.
Why it matters
Before you teach math word problems, run a quick perceptual-reasoning probe. If scores are low, use more visuals and fewer words. This small step can save weeks of trial-and-error.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Mathematics achievement in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been understudied. However, the ability to solve applied math problems is associated with academic achievement, everyday problem-solving abilities, and vocational outcomes. The paucity of research on math achievement in ASD may be partly explained by the widely-held belief that most individuals with ASD are mathematically gifted, despite emerging evidence to the contrary. The purpose of the study was twofold: to assess the relative proportions of youth with ASD who demonstrate giftedness versus disability on applied math problems, and to examine which cognitive (i.e., perceptual reasoning, verbal ability, working memory) and clinical (i.e., test anxiety) characteristics best predict achievement on applied math problems in ASD relative to typically developing peers. Twenty-seven high-functioning adolescents with ASD and 27 age- and Full Scale IQ-matched typically developing controls were assessed on standardized measures of math problem solving, perceptual reasoning, verbal ability, and test anxiety. Results indicated that 22% of the ASD sample evidenced a mathematics learning disability, while only 4% exhibited mathematical giftedness. The parsimonious linear regression model revealed that the strongest predictor of math problem solving was perceptual reasoning, followed by verbal ability and test anxiety, then diagnosis of ASD. These results inform our theories of math ability in ASD and highlight possible targets of intervention for students with ASD struggling with mathematics.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2016 · doi:10.1002/aur.1524