Mathematical Development in Learning Diasbled Children

描述(由申请人提供)：拟议的研究将提供一项为期五年的纵向研究，研究数学学习障碍(MD)儿童和正常同龄人算术程序能力和数字估计技能的发展。众所周知，在解决简单算术问题时，MD儿童1)依赖于发育不成熟的策略，如手指计数；2)经常犯计数错误；3)使用不成熟的计数程序(例如，他们计算两个加数而不是陈述一个加数的基数值并计数--次数等于另一个加数的值)；4)从长期记忆中提取基本事实有困难。这位研究人员目前资助的研究的重点是确定导致这些算术缺陷的基本认知系统，如工作记忆。例如，他发现，工作记忆与MD儿童对手指计数和计数错误的依赖，以及他们对不成熟计数程序的使用与计数概念的知识之间存在着很强的联系。换句话说，MD儿童的工作记忆容量低于他们的正常同龄人，这种工作记忆上的小组差异解释了小组在使用手指计数和计数错误方面的部分差异。相反，群体在计数原理知识上的差异与手指计数或计数错误的使用无关，但解释了在计数过程中使用的程序类型的群体差异的部分原因。这项拟议的研究将首次对MD儿童算术缺陷和潜在认知系统之间的关系进行纵向评估，并将扩大评估范围，包括比大多数先前研究中使用的更复杂的算术问题。这项拟议的研究还将首次评估MD儿童使用空间表征(即心理数字线)进行数字估计的能力，并评估这种表征的形式如何随着正规教育的变化而变化。目标是记录MD儿童算术和数字估计能力的发展进程，并根据背景和意义部分描述的理论基础确定导致MD儿童这些能力发展迟缓和缺陷的认知系统(例如工作记忆)。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed research will provide a five-year longitudinal study of the development of arithmetic-procedural competencies and number estimation skills in children with a learning disability in mathematics (MD) and normal peers. It is well established that during the solving of simple arithmetic problems MD children 1) rely on developmentally immature strategies, such as finger counting; 2) frequently commit counting errors; 3) use immature counting procedures (e.g., they count both addends rather than stating the cardinal value of one addend and counting-on a number of times equal to the value of the other addend); 4) and, have difficulties retrieving basic facts from long-term memory. The focus of the investigator's currently funded research is to identify the basic cognitive systems, such as working memory, that underlie these arithmetic deficits. He has found, for instance, a strong relation between working memory and MD children's reliance on finger counting and counting errors, and a relation between their use of immature counting procedures and knowledge of counting concepts. In other words, MD children have a lower working memory capacity than their normal peers, and this group difference in working memory explains part of the group differences in use of finger counting and counting errors. Group differences in knowledge of counting principles, in contrast, is unrelated to use of finger counting or counting errors, but explains part of the group difference in the type of procedure used during counting. The proposed research will provide the first longitudinal assessment of these relations among MD children's arithmetic deficits and underlying cognitive systems, and will expand the assessments to include more complex arithmetic problems than have been used in most previous studies. The proposed research will also be the first to assess MD children's ability to use spatial representations (i.e., a mental number line) to make number estimations, and assess how the form of the representation changes with formal schooling. The goals are to document the developmental progression of arithmetic and number estimation competencies in MD children, and to identify - based on the theoretical rationale described in the Background and Significance Section - the cognitive systems (e.g., working memory) that underlie MD children's developmental delays and deficits in these competencies.