Integrating domain-general and domain-specific developmental processes: Cross-syndrome, cross-domain dynamics

Mathematical development in Williams syndrome: A systematic review

“…Overall, these studies showed that arithmetic was a particular area of difficulty in WS (Udwin et al, 1987;1998). However, performance has been reported in other studies to be in line with non-verbal mental age (O'Hearn & Landau, 2007) or even above their overall mental age (Steele et al, 2012) and similar to other populations that have similar cognitive abilities, such as individuals with Down syndrome (Paterson et al, 2006;Steele et al, 2012).…”

“…Three studies have examined counting aloud abilities in participants with WS. These studies show that participants with WS generally have good knowledge of the counting names and primary school aged children are able to count from 0-10 ( Steele et al, 2012) and more broadly children and adults are able to count onwards from 1 to 20 without many problems (Ansari et al, 2007;Paterson et al, 2006). However, performance on counting tasks that require working memory abilities, such as counting onwards and backwards was poorer than typically developing controls (Paterson et al, 2006).…”

“…In addition, in relation to counting sets or understanding the purpose of counting, i.e. cardinality, a number of studies showed that performance was delayed in line with non-verbal mental age (Ansari et al, 2003;Dolscheid & Penke, 2018;O'Hearn et al, 2011;Rousselle et al, 2013;Steele et al, 2012). This result was replicated in five studies, despite the different number of participants, ages of participants and control group(s) included.…”

“…An overview of these studies is provided in Table 1. (Howlin, Davies & Udwin, 1998;Howlin, Elison, Udwin & Stinton, 2010;O'Hearn & Landau, 2007;Steele, Brown, & Scerif, 2012;Udwin, Yule & Martin, 1987). One study measured mathematical attainment using an authorgenerated test (Paterson et al, 2006).…”

Foreward: Development Is Not About Studying Children: The Importance of Longitudinal Approaches

“…To understand development in both typical and atypical individuals, it is vital to trace developmental trajectories across time (Cornish, Scerif, & Karmiloff-Smith, 2007); to assess progressive change from infancy onward at the neural, cognitive, and behavioral levels; and to pinpoint how parts of the developing system may interact with other parts differently at different times across ontogenesis (Steele, Brown, & Scerif, 2012). A process that is vital, say, at Time 2 may no longer play a role at Time 5.…”