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Download fileThe quandary of diagnosing mathematical difficulties in a generally low performing population
journal contribution
posted on 2021-08-06, 15:27 authored by Mariuche Rodrigues de Almeida Gomides, Isabella Starling-Alves, Giulia Moreira Paiva, Leidiane da Silva Caldeira, Ana Luíza Pedrosa Neves Aichinger, Maria Raquel Santos Carvalho, Julia BahnmuellerJulia Bahnmueller, Korbinian MoellerKorbinian Moeller, Júlia Beatriz Lopes-Silva, Vitor Geraldi HaaseBrazilian students’ mathematical achievement was repeatedly observed to fall below average levels of
mathematical attainment in international comparison studies such as PISA. In this article, we argue that
this general low level of mathematical attainment interferes with the diagnosis of developmental
dyscalculia when the psychometric criteria is used: establishing of an arbitrary cut-off (e.g., performance
< percentile 10) may lead to misleading diagnoses. Therefore, the present study set off to evaluate the
performance of Brazilian school children on basic arithmetic operations. Seven hundred and six children
from 3rd to 5th grades completed a calculation task assessing arithmetic fluency in addition, subtraction,
and multiplication. In line with PISA results, children presented difficulties in all arithmetic operations
investigated. Children performed better in addition than subtraction and multiplication, and 3rd and 4th
graders were outperformed by 5th graders in all three operations. However, even after five years of
formal schooling, less than half of 5th graders performed perfectly on simple addition, subtraction, and
multiplication problems. Therefore, these data substantiate the argument that the sole use of a
psychometric criterion might not be sensible to diagnose dyscalculia in the context of a generally low
performing population, such as Brazilian primary school children. When the majority of children fail
the task, it is hard to distinguish atypical from typical numerical development. As such, other diagnostic
approaches, such as Response to Intervention, might be more suitable in such a context.
Funding
Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG, APQ-02755-SHA, APQ-03289-10, APQ-02953-14, APQ-03642-12)
DFG funding (MO 2525/7-1)
CAPES (88882.381504/2019-01)
CAPES (DocPleno, 88881.128282/2016-01)
CNPq excellence in research fellowship (308157/2011-7, 308267/2014-1)
Brazilian National Research Council (Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa, CNPq, grant number 312068/2015-8)
Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) APQ-01093-15, APQ-02003-15, APQ-01377-17)
PPP Joint Research (PROBRAL) (88887.143931/2017-00)
History
School
- Science
Department
- Mathematics Education Centre
Published in
Dementia & NeuropsychologiaVolume
15Issue
2Pages
267-274Publisher
Associação Neurologia Cognitiva e do Comportamento, BrazilVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Rights holder
© The AuthorsPublisher statement
This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Associação Neurologia Cognitiva e do Comportamento, Brazil under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Acceptance date
2021-02-01Publication date
2021-07-02Copyright date
2021ISSN
1980-5764Publisher version
Language
- en