Number processing and mental calculation in school children aged 7 to 10 years: a transcultural comparison

Abstract

Neuropsychological studies of dyscalculic patients show that arithmetical development is not a unidimensional process. In transcultural investigations, cultural, educational and linguistic factors might affect differently the various components of mathematical development. Four hundred and sixty schoolchildren aged 7 to 10 years from Brasilia, Brazil (n = 141), Paris, France (n = 160) and Zurich, Switzerland (n = 159) were asked to perform eleven number processing and calculation tasks. Chronological age, which was almost confounded in this study to educational level, had a strong effect on some tasks (knowledge of the written code of numbers, number comparison, mental calculation, problem solving), but only a slight effect on other tasks (counting dots, counting backwards, estimation). Also, linguistic factors and factors related to the socio-economic level of the family had different effects on the various components of calculation and number processing. Evidence from developmental studies has to be integrated into theoretical models of calculation and number processsing, which are presently based mainly on results from neuropsychological studies of dyscalculic patients.

Number Processing and Calculation in Brazilian Children Aged 7-12 Years

“…In previous studies it was suggested that a low socioeconomic level and educational environment could determine such differences (Dellatolas et al, 2000;Koumoula et al, 2004). In the present study, socioeconomic status was objectively assessed, rather than inferred by the environment factor, and the statistical analysis indicated that rural children in fact had low socioeconomic scores than urban children.…”

“…In the BDS, the subject repeats the digits in reverse order. Additionally, as presented by Dellatolas et al (2000), the Score A is SANTOS, SILVA, RIBEIRO, DIAS, FRIGÉRIO, DELLATOLAS, AND VON ASTER 518 …”

“…In a cross-cultural study of Brazilian, French and Swiss children, aged 7 to 10 years Brazilian children were from central and suburbs of Brasília city, recruited in public and private schools (Dellatolas et al, 2000). The authors obtained an age effect on the Score A, which is formed by the core tasks of the battery: two involving number transcription, the two tasks of number comparison, and the two tasks of calculation.…”

The Developmental Changes of Number Processing and Calculation Abilities in Chinese Primary School Students

“…Functional analysis confirmed that sub-tests NUCALC could be organized into three clusters, fitting well with the three modules of Dehaene's triple code model (Santos et al, 2013;von Aster, 2000). There have been behavioral studies that used NUCALC to examine the age or grade effect on children across countries (Dellatolas, von Aster, Willadino-Braga, Meier, & Deloche, 2000;Koumoula et al, 2004;Santos et al, 2013). These studies revealed an agerelated improvement in Score A, which consisted of six subtests that were associated with schooling achievement (dictation and reading of numbers, mental calculation addition part, problem solving, and oral and written comparison).…”

Discalculia do desenvolvimento: avaliação da representação numérica pela ZAREKI-R

“…Com a inserção no Ensino Fundamental, as crianças aprendem a representar os números por meio do processamento simbó-lico (p.ex., palavras, numerais, ideogramas), o que permite a manipulação e comparação de quantidades precisas (Mundy & Gilmore, 2009). Uma vez que as habilidades quantitativas adquirem características culturais (Geary, 2000;von Aster & Shalev, 2007), fatores linguísticos, culturais e pedagógicos têm diferentes efeitos nos diversos componentes das habilidades matemáticas e podem, em alguns casos, afetar a aprendizagem escolar (Dellatolas, von Aster, Braga, Meier, & Deloche, 2000).…”