Childrens mathematical profile with Learning Difficulties in Mathematics in relation to their reading competence

Abstract

This work pretends to identify the differentiating characteristics of the children that only present Learning Difficulties in mathematics (LDM) and those that also have difficulties in reading (LDM-LDR). To do so, we compare the mathematical execution of three groups of children in the third grade of primary school: one group with Learning Difficulties in Mathematics (LDM) that also had a low reading level (LDM-LDR), another with learning difficulties in mathematics and a acceptable reading level (LDM), and a third group formed by children without difficulties. The results show that the groups with learning difficulties obtain significantly inferior performances to the children without difficulties, both in the total scoring of the applied mathematical test, like in the different count subtests: reading and writing of numbers, calculation, numeric facts, numerical sense, verbal problems and conceptual relationships. Also the LDM children reach achieve higher scores than the LDM-LDR in all these tasks, but even higher in counting, reading and writing of numbers. It has not been possible to relate the type of LDM with the bigger or smaller hemispheric dominance.