Mathematics difficulties in extremely preterm children: evidence of a specific deficit in basic mathematics processing
Victoria Simms
Camilla Gilmore
Lucy Cragg
Neil Marlow
Dieter Wolke
Samantha Johnson
2134/12041
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/Mathematics_difficulties_in_extremely_preterm_children_evidence_of_a_specific_deficit_in_basic_mathematics_processing/9369758
Background. Extremely preterm (EP, <26 weeks gestation) children have been
observed to have poor academic achievement in comparison to their term-born
peers, especially in mathematics. This study investigated potential underlying causes
of this difficulty.
Methods. 219 extremely preterm participants were compared with 153 term-born
control children at 11 years old. All children were assessed by a psychologist on a
battery of standardised cognitive tests and a number estimation test assessing
children’s numerical representations.
Results. EP children underperformed in all tests in comparison to the term controls
(the majority of p’s<.001). Different underlying relationships between performance on
the number estimation test and mathematical achievement were found in extremely
preterm compared to control children. That is, even after controlling for cognitive
ability, a relationship between number representations and mathematical
performance persisted for EP children only (EP: r= .346, n= 186, p< .001; Control:
r= .095, n=146, p= .256).
Conclusion. Interventions for EP children may target improving children’s numerical
representations in order to subsequently remediate their mathematical skills.
2013-04-04 14:27:52
untagged