The present study examines the comorbidity between specific learning disorders (SLD) and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by comparing the neuropsychological profiles of children ...with and without this comorbidity. Ninety-seven schoolchildren from 8 to 14 years old were tested: a clinical sample of 49 children with ADHD (
= 18), SLD (
= 18) or SLD in comorbidity with ADHD (
= 13), and 48 typically-developing (TD) children matched for age and intelligence. Participants were administered tasks and questionnaires to confirm their initial diagnosis, and a battery of executive function (EF) tasks testing inhibition, shifting, and verbal and visuospatial updating. Using one-way ANOVAs, our results showed that all children in the clinical samples exhibited impairments on EF measures (inhibition and shifting tasks) when compared with TD children. A more specific pattern only emerged for the updating tasks. Only children with SLD had significant impairment in verbal updating, whereas children with ADHD, and those with SLD in comorbidity with ADHD, had the worst performance in visuospatial updating. The clinical and educational implications of these findings are discussed.
We review how stress induction, time pressure manipulations and math anxiety can interfere with or modulate selection of problem-solving strategies (henceforth "strategy selection") in arithmetical ...tasks. Nineteen relevant articles were identified, which contain references to strategy selection and time limit (or time manipulations), with some also discussing emotional aspects in mathematical outcomes. Few of these take cognitive processes such as working memory or executive functions into consideration. We conclude that due to the sparsity of available literature our questions can only be partially answered and currently there is not much evidence of clear associations. We identify major gaps in knowledge and raise a series of open questions to guide further research.
We examined how children's strategy choices in solving complex subtraction problems are related to grade and to variations in problem complexity. In two studies, third- and fifth-grade children ...(N≈160 each study) solved multi-digit subtraction problems (e.g., 34-18) and described their solution strategies. In the first experiment, strategy selection was investigated by means of a
paradigm, whereas in the second study a
approach was implemented. In both experiments, analyses of strategy repertoire indicated that third-grade children were more likely to report less-efficient strategies (i.e., counting) and relied more on the right-to-left solution algorithm compared to fifth-grade children who more often used efficient memory-based retrieval and conceptually-based left-to-right (i.e., decomposition) strategies. Nevertheless, all strategies were reported or selected by both older and younger children and strategy use varied with problem complexity and presentation format for both age groups. These results supported the overlapping waves model of strategy development and provide detailed information about patterns of strategy choice on complex subtraction problems.
According to the emerging dimensional framework, most neurodevelopmental disorders may be conceptualised as extreme ends of developmental continua that span through the entire population (e.g., Astle ...et al., 2022; Peters & Ansari, 2019). This framework describes not only learning difficulties, but potentially most neurodiversity as the result of individuals being distributed along a manifold of variously correlated and continuous dimensions, that span from neurotypicality to neurodivergence in a largely seamless way. In this, a heterogeneous range of conditions may easily be reframed as part of the general variability in the population, rather than as segmented subpopulations with qualitatively different features. In the present editorial, we discuss this framework with reference to the field of learning disorders and difficulties. We will repeatedly refer to the suggestions made by Astle et al. (2022) in their review on the “transdiagnostic revolution” of neurodevelopmental disorders. The research program that they advocate has two methodological tenets: investigating underlying continuous dimensions (dimensional framework), and exploring clustering (with an eye to potentially developing new data-driven taxonomies). Here, we mainly endorse adopting a dimensional framework, at least in the field of learning disorders, while we raise some cautionary notes on the risks of clustering. We also discuss open issues related to recruiting participants, improving psychometrics tools, and discovering cognitive and non-cognitive correlates of conditions when it comes to studying learning difficulties and learning disorders.
The aim of this study was to investigate trait and state mathematics anxiety (MA) in children with Specific Learning Disorders (SLD; N = 56), aged between 8 and 14 years old, compared to ...non-diagnosed (ND; N = 56) participants matched for age, gender, and IQ. In addition to a trait-like questionnaire on MA, participants were tested with a time-pressure math task, during which MA-state components and perceived competence were assessed. Lower levels of trait MA and a higher task-related perception of competence were found to positively predict math attainment in the entire sample, whereas specific MA-state patterns emerged distinctly in children with and without SLD. In children with SLD, a higher emotional arousal during the task was consistent with better performance, whereas greater worries were linked to worse math execution. Conversely, in ND children, greater task-related worries were associated with better performance. Educational institutions and practitioners should consider how emotional responses, self-evaluations, negative thoughts, and worries may impact the process of learning mathematics. These factors can significantly affect performance, especially when assessing the acquisition of specific mathematical skills.
The findings of the present study reveal that the math performance of children, both with and without SLD, may be negatively influenced by specific emotional responses, intrusive thoughts, and worries. Therefore, it is crucial to consider both protective and risk factors in educational practices. On a practical level, teachers and clinicians should be aware that proficiency might be affected by time pressure, potentially elevating the level of state mathematics anxiety. Interventions that focus on affective and cognitive factors related to performance could have positive implications for the learning process in students facing academic difficulties.
•Lower levels of trait mathematics anxiety predict higher scores in a real-time mathematics assessment in children with and without SLD.•Higher perceived competence is consistent with better mathematics performance in children with and without SLD.•Arousal and worries might be respectively protective and risk factors for mathematics achievement in children with SLD.•Greater worries seem to be associated to better mathematics performance in ND children.
The main goal of the present research is to gain a better understanding of the consequences of background noise on learning, with a specific focus on how noise may impair maths achievement. A mental ...calculation task was administered in the classroom to 162 middle-school students (11–13 years old). The listening conditions were manipulated, choosing three different conditions - quiet, traffic and classroom noise - to reflect realistic noise exposure experienced in urban classrooms. A differential negative effect of listening condition on maths performance emerged in relation to task difficulty and children's age. The youngest children performed better in the quiet and traffic noise conditions than in the classroom noise condition, while in the older children these differences gradually disappeared. The detrimental effect of classroom noise was most evident when the maths task was moderately difficult. With increasing task complexity, the difference between listening conditions faded.
These data support the idea that younger children are more susceptible to the detrimental effects of noise in school classrooms than older children, and that their academic attainments are affected. Our findings have implications for classroom learning because different types of environmental noise affected children's performance differently, depending on the complexity of the task in hand.
•A maths task was administered in the classroom to 162 middle-school students.•Three listening conditions were manipulated: quiet, traffic and classroom noise.•Listening conditions affect maths depending on task difficulty and children's age.•A detrimental effect of classroom noise gradually disappeared with age increasing.•Maths performance was negatively affected by classroom noise for easier problems.
Background
Two hypotheses were tested regarding the characteristics of children with mathematical learning disabilities (MLD): (a) that children with MLD would have a ‘core deficit’ in basic number ...processing skills; and (b) that children with MLD would be at the end of a developmental continuum and have impairments in many cognitive skills.
Methods
From a large sample (N = 1,303) of typically developing children, we selected a group definable as having MLD. The children were given measures of basic number processing and domain‐general constructs. Differences between the observed sample and a simulated population were estimated using Cohen’s d and Bayes factors. Receiver operating characteristic curves were plotted, and the area under the curve was computed to ascertain the diagnostic power of measures.
Results
Results suggest that the differences between the MLD and control group can be defined along with general characteristics of the population rather than assuming single or multiple ‘core deficits’. None of the measures of interest exceeded the diagnostic power that could be derived via simulation from the dimensional characteristics of the general population.
Conclusions
There is no evidence for core deficit(s) in MLD. We suggest that future research should focus on representative samples of typical populations and on carefully tested clinical samples confirming to the criteria of international diagnostic manuals. Clinical diagnoses require that MLD is persistent and resistant to intervention, so studies would deliver results less exposed to measurement fluctuations. Uniform diagnostic criteria would also allow for the easy cross‐study comparison of samples overcoming a serious limitation of the current literature.
Maths anxiety (MA) is a debilitating negative emotional reaction towards mathematics. However, MA research in primary and early secondary school is surprisingly sparse and inconsistent. Here we ...tested primary and secondary students' maths and reading performance and their maths and general anxiety (GA). We examined gender differences, developmental changes regarding the MA/maths performance link and investigated whether MA is linked to other academic domains (reading) and/or to other anxiety-types (GA). Results revealed that girls exhibited higher MA than boys at both educational levels. Whilst there was a reliable negative correlation between MA and secondary students' arithmetic performance, no such relationship was revealed in primary students. Finally, MA was moderately correlated with GA and, when GA was partialled out, MA remained significantly correlated with secondary students' arithmetic performance. MA was not related to reading performance when GA was controlled. It was concluded that the negative MA/maths performance link surfaces later in the educational timeline and MA appears to be both exclusively related to maths and independent of GA.
•We explored MA gender differences, mapped MA developmental changes and investigated the specificity of this anxiety-type.•Girls exhibited higher MA than boys at both educational levels.•The negative relation between MA and maths performance surfaces later in the educational timeline.•MA can be considered a maths specific anxiety-type and is independent of general anxiety.
The relationship between anxiety and mathematics has often been investigated in the literature. Different forms of anxiety have been evaluated, with math anxiety (MA) and test anxiety (TA) ...consistently being associated with various aspects of mathematics. In this meta-analysis, we have evaluated the impact of these forms of anxiety, distinguishing between different types of mathematical tasks. In investigating this relationship, we have also included potential moderators, such as age, gender, working memory, type of task, and type of material. One hundred seventy-seven studies met the inclusion criteria, providing an overall sample of 906,311 participants. Results showed that both MA and TA had a significant impact on mathematics. Sociodemographic factors had modest moderating effects. Working memory (WM) also mediated the relationship between MA and TA with mathematics; however, this indirect effect was weak. Theoretical and educational implications, as well as future directions for research in this field, are discussed.
Given the widespread prevalence of mathematics anxiety (MA) and its detrimental long-term impact on academic performance and professional development, it is essential to develop standardized tools ...capable of identifying MA as early as possible. One of the scales most often used to assess MA is the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) (Hopko, Mahadevan, Bare, & Hunt, 2003). The first aim of the present study was to validate this tool in a large sample of Italian primary school children, to confirm the factor structure of the AMAS and to develop standardized norms that can be used in the clinical field. Moreover, as the relation between MA and gender has been extensively reported in adult samples, a second goal of the study was to test the invariance of the scale across genders.
•The validation of the AMAS Questionnaire, measuring math anxiety, in Italian primary school children is presented.•1013 primary school students between 8 and 11years-old were tested.•Confirmatory factor analysis showed evidence of the underlying two-factor structure of the Italian version of the AMAS.•Results also demonstrated the invariance of the AMAS across genders.
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