The approximate number system (ANS) has been consistently found to be associated with math achievement. However, little is known about the interactions between the different instantiations of the ANS ...and in how many ways they are related to exact calculation. In a cross-sectional design, we investigated the relationship between three measures of ANS acuity (non-symbolic comparison, non-symbolic estimation and non-symbolic addition), their cross-sectional trajectories and specific contributions to exact calculation. Children with mathematical difficulties (MD) and typically achieving (TA) controls attending the first six years of formal schooling participated in the study. The MD group exhibited impairments in multiple instantiations of the ANS compared to their TA peers. The ANS acuity measured by all three tasks positively correlated with age in TA children, while no correlation was found between non-symbolic comparison and age in the MD group. The measures of ANS acuity significantly correlated with each other, reflecting at least in part a common numerosity code. Crucially, we found that non-symbolic estimation partially and non-symbolic addition fully mediated the effects of non-symbolic comparison in exact calculation.
Background
Disorders in different levels of body representation (i.e., body schema, body structural description, and body image) are present in hemiplegic cerebral palsy (HCP). However, it remains ...unclear whether the body image develops from aspects of body schema and body structural description, and how this occurs in children with HCP.
Objective and methods
In a cross-sectional study, we investigated 53 children with HCP (mean age about 10 years) and 204 typically developing (TD) control children to qualitatively evaluate whether and how body schema (related sensorimotor experiences) and body structural description (related visuospatial experiences) affect the development of children’s body image and whether this development is delayed through HCP. Graph analysis was used to create a lexical-semantic map of body representation from data of a semantic word fluency task.
Results
Results indicated a similar qualitative pattern of influences of sensorimotor and visuospatial experiences on lexical-semantic knowledge of body parts, with a delayed developmental course in children with HCP compared to TD children.
Conclusion
These findings suggest that children’s body image seemed to be influenced by body schema and body structural descriptions as indicated by poorer lexical-semantic knowledge of body parts in children with HCP due to missing physical experiences of the affected body parts. This might imply that “body talk” may beneficially complement physical therapy for children with HCP to promote body image development.
•We studied number transcoding in children with and without math difficulties.•Younger children with math difficulties struggled with numerical lexicon and syntax.•Older children with math ...difficulties struggled with numerical syntax only.•Working memory did not fully account for the group differences.•Children with math difficulties showed a delay in the learning of number transcoding.
Transcoding between numerical systems is one of the most basic abilities acquired by children during their early school years. One important topic that requires further exploration is how mathematics proficiency can affect number transcoding. The aim of the current study was to investigate transcoding abilities (i.e., reading Arabic numerals and writing dictation) in Brazilian children with and without mathematics difficulties, focusing on different school grades. We observed that children with learning difficulties in mathematics demonstrated lower achievement in number transcoding in both early and middle elementary school. In early elementary school, difficulties were observed in both the basic numerical lexicon and the management of numerical syntax. In middle elementary school, difficulties appeared mainly in the transcoding of more complex numbers. An error analysis revealed that the children with mathematics difficulties struggled mainly with the acquisition of transcoding rules. Although we confirmed the previous evidence on the impact of working memory capacity on number transcoding, we found that it did not fully account for the observed group differences. The results are discussed in the context of a maturational lag in number transcoding ability in children with mathematics difficulties.
Math anxiety (MA) seems to result from an interaction of genetic vulnerability with negative experiences learning mathematics. Although mathematics achievement does not substantially differ between ...the sexes, MA levels are usually higher in girls. Molecular genetic markers of MA vulnerability have been seldom explored. This article examines the contribution of the monoamine oxidase A gene (MAOA) to MA and to sex differences in MA. Five hundred and sixty‐eight third to fifth graders were genotyped for the MAOA‐LPR polymorphism (a repetitive element in MAOA promoter that has been associated with MAOA enzymatic activity), and assessed on general cognitive ability, mathematics achievement, and the cognitive and affective dimensions of MA. MAOA‐LPR genotypes were classified as high (MAOA‐H) or low (MAOA‐L) according to their predicted enzymatic activity. Mixed models controlling for effects of school, sex, general cognitive ability, and mathematics achievement were evaluated. The best fitting model included school, math achievement, sex, MAOA‐LPR, and the MAOA‐LPR by sex interaction. This indicated that under the MAOA‐H dominant model, anxiety toward mathematics interacted with the MAOA genotype: girls with an MAOA‐L genotype exhibited higher levels of MA, with a small but significant effect. The association between MAOA‐L genotype and MA in girls may represent an example of developmental plasticity.
Third to fifth graders self‐reported on the cognitive and affective dimensions of math anxiety (MA) and were genotyped for the MAOA‐LPR polymorphism, a repetitive element in the MAOA promoter associated with MAOA enzymatic activity. Interactions between genotype, sex, and MA were analyzed under different genetic models. Girls with the low activity (MAOA‐L), as opposed to boys and girls with the high activity (MAOA‐H) genotype, reported higher levels of affective MA.
Symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity, arranged along a continuum, are commonly associated with neuropsychological and academic deficits, even in the general population. The aim of ...this study is to analyze how Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms are associated with the performance in neuropsychological and academic abilities (phonological processing, processing speed/automatic attention, executive functions, reading, and spelling) in school-age children. The sample consisted of 216 children from 3
rd
and 4
th
grades (M = 8.94 years old, SD =.71) from public elementary schools of two Brazilian capitals. Pearson correlation and Multiple Linear Regression analysis were performed. Inattention symptoms were the only predictors of performance in phonological processing (phoneme suppression and rapid automatized naming of letters), processing speed/automatic attention, executive functions, such as inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility, and reading fluency. Beta values ranged from .14 to .27, and the largest value was related to an inhibitory control task. Inattention, and not hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms, seems to affect neuropsychological functions even in non-clinical diagnosed children. Contributions and future directions are discussed.
Evidence indicates that motor deficits in hemiplegic cerebral palsy (HCP) impair both motor execution and planning. However, current rehabilitation efforts focus mainly on relieving impairments in ...motor execution. Motor imagery (MI) is a promising method for stimulating neural networks underlying the planning and control of movements.
Evaluate the effectiveness of MI combined with physical practice in improving the function of the upper limbs in children with HCP.
Twenty-four participants, aged 7-14 years were divided into two groups: intervention group (IG) and control group (CG). The IG was subjected to MI training and physical practice twice a week for eight consecutive weeks, while the CG received conventional therapy. Participants were assessed with the Assisting Hand Assessment (AHA) at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and follow up.
The results showed improved motor functions in both groups. Analysis using the general linear model (analysis of covariance) and Bonferroni post hoc tests showed significant improvements from pre-intervention to post-intervention in the AHA for the IG. The CG showed non-significant improvement in AHA scores.
These findings suggest that the MI training, combined with the physical practice program used in this study, was effective in improving upper limb function in children with HCP.
The suspension of face-to-face teaching, due to the COVID-19 social distancing regulations, raised serious concerns about the impacts on children’s academic learning. Because the implementation of ...distance education in Germany was entirely the responsibility of individual schools, and because the home learning environments varied across households, school children had very different learning conditions during the pandemic. This fact raises questions whether the conditions of distance learning has impacted children’s development of basic number skills. In this paper, descriptive information on children’s home learning conditions and teachers’ distance teaching approaches during the pandemic, socio-cultural capital, and basic number skills of 484 third and fourth grade students (51.2% girls) in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) are assessed. The data revealed risk factors such as not having a tablet/laptop, lack of access to the internet, or a learning environment with siblings without an adult family member present. A negative association was found between multiple risk factors (at-risk levels) in home learning and basic number skills. This link was partially mediated by socio-cultural capital and moderated by teachers’ distance teaching approach. Children whose teachers applied a more personalized teaching approach showed fewer negative relations between at-risk levels and basic number skills. While no evidence was observed for positive effects of videoconferencing, school-based emergency classes, or private tutoring on basic number skills, children whose learning was supported by learning management systems showed better skills than their peers. The findings highlight the differential impact of home-based learning conditions during the pandemic and provide practical implications for realization of distance teaching.
ABSTRACT Math anxiety (MA) is a feeling of dread, tension and anxiety when dealing with math situations. Avoidance behavior prevents children from learning math, impairing their performance. ...Cognitive behavioral therapy is an approach with robust evidence of efficacy in treating anxiety disorders. The Coping Cat, a protocol for treating anxiety disorders, inspired the MA intervention reported here. The participant was N. L., an 11-year-old female displaying math-related and math-unrelated anxiety symptoms. Outcome measures included arithmetic performance, and self-reports of general positive and negative affect and math-related self-perceived performance, attitude, unhappiness and anxiety. The therapeutic approach included psychoeducation, relaxation, diaphragmatic breathing, cognitive restructuring, problem-solving training and graded exposure. After 12 individual intervention sessions, there was an improvement in negative and positive affect, as well as an improvement in self-perceived performance and a decrease in MA.
RESUMO A ansiedade matemática (AM) pode ser definida como sentimento de tensão e ansiedade ao se manipular estímulos numéricos. O comportamento de esquiva, típico da ansiedade, impede que a criança treine matemática, prejudicando seu desempenho. A terapia cognitivo-comportamental é uma abordagem com evidências robustas de eficácia no tratamento da ansiedade e, ao longo do tempo, diversos protocolos de intervenção foram desenvolvidos para esse distúrbio. Um protocolo infantil conhecido por sua eficácia é o Coping Cat, o qual inspirou a elaboração da intervenção para AM do presente estudo. N. L., 11 anos, foi classificada como superior em uma escala de AM. Após 12 sessões de intervenção individuais, ela alcançou escores médios na mesma escala. As técnicas utilizadas foram psicoeducação, respiração diafragmática, relaxamento, reestruturação cognitiva, treinamento de resolução de problemas e exposição.
It is still debated if the main deficit in mathematical difficulties (MD) is nonsymbolic or symbolic numerical magnitude processing.
In the present study, our main goal was to investigate nonsymbolic ...and symbolic numerical magnitude processing in MD and the relationship between these abilities and arithmetic.
The Brazilian school-age children with MD completed a nonsymbolic and a symbolic numerical magnitude comparison task and an arithmetic task. We compared their performance with a group of children with typical achievement (TA) and investigated the association between numerical magnitude processing and arithmetic with a series of regression analyses.
Results indicated that children with MD had low performance in the nonsymbolic numerical magnitude comparison task. Performance in both nonsymbolic and symbolic numerical magnitude comparison tasks predicted arithmetic abilities in children with TA, but not in children with MD.
These results indicate that children with MD have difficulties in nonsymbolic numerical magnitude processing, and do not engage basic numerical magnitude representations to solve arithmetic.
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