Syntactic Awareness and Arithmetic Word Problem Solving in Children With and Without Learning Disabilities

Abstract

Arithmetic word problem (AWP) solving is a highly demanding task for children with learning disabilities (LD) since verbal and mathematical information have to be integrated. This study examines specifically how syntactic awareness (SA), the ability to manage the grammatical structures of language, affects AWP solving. Three groups of children in elementary education were formed: children with arithmetic learning disabilities (ALD), children with reading learning disabilities (RLD), and children with comorbid arithmetic and reading learning disabilities (ARLD). Mediation analysis confirmed that SA was a mediator variable for both groups of children with reading disabilities when solving AWPs, but not for children in the ALD group. All groups performed below the control group in the problem solving task. When SA was controlled for, semantic structure and position of the unknown set were variables that affected both groups with ALD. Specifically, children with ALD only were more affected by the place of the unknown set.

Alternative paths to improved word-problem performance: An advantage for embedding prealgebraic reasoning instruction within word-problem intervention.

“…Although word-problem solving is demanding for many students (Fuchs, Powell, et al, 2014), students with MD often demonstrate markedly lower performance relative to students without MD (Peake, Jiménez, Rodríguez, Bisschop, & Villarroel, 2015; van Garderen, Scheuermann, & Jackson, 2013). Fortunately, word-problem outcomes for students with MD can improve with word-problem intervention (Flores, Hinton, & Burton, 2016; Fuchs, Powell, et al, 2014; Griffin, Gagnon, Jossi, Ulrich, & Myers, 2018; Swanson et al, 2014; Xin et al, 2011; Zheng, Flynn, & Swanson, 2013).…”

The Use of a Bar Model Drawing to Teach Word Problem Solving to Students With Mathematics Difficulties

“…These skills and tasks become more challenging when the students performing them have deficits in reading (decoding and/or comprehension), cognitive processes (e.g., working memory [WM] capacity), and mathematics cognition (e.g., number knowledge). These deficits may hinder the students' ability to successfully solve math word problems (Andersson & Lyxell, 2007;Fuchs et al, 2008;Peake, Jiménez, Rodríguez, Bisschop, & Villarroel, 2015;Swanson, 2012Swanson, , 2015.…”

Revisión sistemática: perfil cognitivo de dislexia y discalculia comórbidas

“…Con el objetivo de identificar los déficits diferenciadores y compartidos en ambos trastornos y si estos tienen carácter general o específico, en la Tabla 3 se recogen los resultados al respecto. Se han excluido los estudios que no cuentan con subgrupos de DD sola y DC sola (Mammarella et al, 2013a;Mammarella et al, 2013b;Tobia et al, 2014;Zhang y Wu, 2011) para su comparación, así como, los resultados referidos a otros trastornos incluidos en las muestras (Moll et al, 2016), tampoco se incluyen estudios centrados en el desempeño de tareas concretas que los investigadores no relacionan con habilidades cognitivas de dominio general o específico (Peake et al, 2015;Raddatz et al, 2016). Con "déficits diferenciadores" nos referimos a aquellos que solo se encuentran asociados a uno de los trastornos, mientras que con "déficits compartidos" nos estamos refiriendo a aquellos que se encuentras en ambos trastornos, tanto en DD como en DC solas, sin que exista comorbilidad.…”

“…Asimismo, la participación de procesos verbales en oposición a visuoespaciales en el cálculo puede depender de cómo se presente el problema (Mammarella et al, 2013b). Como consecuencia, tanto para DD como DC, sería beneficioso que los maestros enfatizasen el desarrollo de los procesos sintácticos para apoyar el logro de la resolución de problemas aritméticos verbales (Peake et al, 2015). En la misma línea, De Weerdt et al (2012) sugieren que el manejo de la carga de la MT en actividades de aprendizaje estructuradas en el aula, en casa o durante la terapia puede ayudar a estos niños a enfrentar sus problemas de una manera más profunda.…”