Examination of Addition and Subtraction Performances of Students with and without Learning Disabilities

Abstract

In this study, addition and subtraction performances of students experiencing learning disability, mathematics difficulties, and typical development were examined. The study group was consisted of 30 students with learning disability, 30 with mathematic difficulties, and 30 with typical development. All participants attended third grade. Relational screening model was utilized for research purposes. A tool including 14 addition and subtraction questions developed by the researcher was used to gather data. Obtained data was analyzed through one-way analysis of variance. Results showed that in written operations, students with learning disabilities and with mathematics difficulties performed more slowly, had lower scores, and made more errors compared to those with typical development. In terms of comparing the types of errors made by students in written, all students seemed to make similar errors. © 2017 IOJES. All rights reservedKeywords 1 : learning disability, mathematics difficulties, addition and subtraction, error patterns Extended SummaryA learning disability mostly appearing as academic failure is connected to the problems experienced in the processes of auditory and visual perception, attention, memory, language development and learning using the cognitive strategies and the information processing systems (Glago, Mastropieri and Scruggs, 2009). There is a significant difference between the academic achievement and the learning potential of the individuals with learning disabilities and the difference continues although the appropriate learning experiences are provided (Bateman, 1992).Several studies have focused on academic difficulties experienced by students with learning disabilities. However, most of these studies concentrate on students' reading and writing problems while their difficulties in mathematics-related skills are overlooked. Moreover, recent research suggests that students with learning disabilities suffer from difficulties not only in literacy, but in mathematics as well (Hanich, Jordan, Kaplan and Dick, 2001). Approximately 25% of the students with learning disabilities were reported to have difficulties in acquiring the mathematics abilities (Miller, Butler and Lee, 1998;Rivera, 1997). Students having difficulties in learning mathematics are described under the term mathematics learning disabilities. Although they are a heterogeneous group, they show similar difficulties in some areas. The most common difficulties they experience have been reported to be difficulty in time and place-direction concepts, failure to solve the problems requiring counting operation, using immature or inappropriate strategies, solving the operations 1 Corresponding author's address:

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