Gender Differences in Children’s Arithmetic Performance Are Accounted for by Gender Differences in Language Abilities

Wei, Wei; Hao, Lu; Zhao, Hui; Chen, Chuansheng; Dong, Qi; Zhou, Xinlin

doi:10.1177/0956797611427168

Cited by 106 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Nevertheless, a specific and small advantage is reported for boys for mathematical reasoning, perhaps reflecting higher aptitude with logical and set theoretical concepts (39). Conversely, an advantage specific to arithmetic is reported for girls, which seems to be attributable to the girls' higher verbal skills that are implicated in arithmetical processing (40).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…Girls in our sample may have benefitted from an overall advantage in language skills as well as in arithmetic and counting, whereas boys may have benefitted from an advantage with set theoretical concepts, with the latter being more critical for the specific task than the former. We should note that our analyses for gender effects were exploratory and that future studies should take into account several potentially confounding factors (40).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cross-linguistic patterns in the acquisition of quantifiers

Katsos

Cummins

Segurola

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

122

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Learners of most languages are faced with the task of acquiring words to talk about number and quantity. Much is known about the order of acquisition of number words as well as the cognitive and perceptual systems and cultural practices that shape it. Substantially less is known about the acquisition of quantifiers. Here, we consider the extent to which systems and practices that support number word acquisition can be applied to quantifier acquisition and conclude that the two domains are largely distinct in this respect. Consequently, we hypothesize that the acquisition of quantifiers is constrained by a set of factors related to each quantifier's specific meaning. We investigate competence with the expressions for "all," "none," "some," "some…not," and "most" in 31 languages, representing 11 language types, by testing 768 5-y-old children and 536 adults. We found a cross-linguistically similar order of acquisition of quantifiers, explicable in terms of four factors relating to their meaning and use. In addition, exploratory analyses reveal that languageand learner-specific factors, such as negative concord and gender, are significant predictors of variation.language acquisition | universals | quantifiers | semantics | pragmatics N umber words and quantifiers are abstract words that denote properties of sets rather than individuals. Twoness and allness in "two/all of the black cats in the street" are not true of any individual cat, whereas blackness and catness are. Children display knowledge of number words and quantifiers around their second birthday, comparatively long after they have acquired concrete nouns (1, 2). As far as number words are concerned, a range of cognitive and perceptual systems supports their acquisition.These systems include an object-tracking system, which enables the precise representation of small quantities, and an analog magnitude system, which enables imprecise and approximate comparisons (1), SignificanceAlthough much research has been devoted to the acquisition of number words, relatively little is known about the acquisition of other expressions of quantity. We propose that the order of acquisition of quantifiers is related to features inherent to the meaning of each term. Four specific dimensions of the meaning and use of quantifiers are found to capture robust similarities in the order of acquisition of quantifiers in similar ways across 31 languages, representing 11 language types.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cross-linguistic patterns in the acquisition of quantifiers

Katsos

Cummins

Segurola

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

122

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Wei et al 18 assessed children in rural and urban areas of Great Beijing and found better performance of girls in the tasks of subtraction, complex multiplication, numeric comparison, and completing numerical series. The authors attributed these results to better language processing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The prevalence of developmental dyscalculia in Brazilian public school system

Bastos¹,

Cecato²,

Martins³

et al. 2016

Arq. Neuro-Psiquiatr.

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The goal of the study was to assess public school children at the end of the first stage of elementary school. We used a protocol applied concurrently with a writing test in the form of an unexpected activity in 28 public schools; 2,893 children assessed, 687 exhibited performance below 58 points, 184 were excluded due to change of address or lack of consent; 503 children subjected to a test of intellectual capacity and reading assessment and 71 considered intellectually disabled were excluded. 226 (7.8%) children, who could read, write, and had normal intellectual level, met the criteria of developmental dyscalculia (DD), 98 female and 128 male. The most influential factors in the prevalence were socioeconomic levels of the schools neighborhood, education level of parents, and being male, as demonstrated by the odds ratio and multiple logistic regression analysis. Further studies should be done so that educational policies are taken.

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“…Additionally, since we had more girls in the normally developing group (N = 11) than in the dyslexia group (N = 3) (p = 0.007), and that there were gender differences in the children's arithmetic performance (Wei et al, 2012), we reran all analyses co-varying with gender difference, and the pattern of results remained (please also see Table s1, Figure s1 of further analyses for this issue).…”

Section: Relationship Between Performances In Linguistic Measures Andmentioning

confidence: 95%