Relationships among Various Components of Developmental Dyscalculia Characteristics in Childhood

Abstract

Developmental dyscalculia can be divided into difficulties with number sense, number facts, computation, and mathematical reasoning. The relationship between number sense performance and other performance has been reported in other countries, but the relationship has not been examined at younger ages. Furthermore the way of perceiving numbers differs from culture to culture, and these relationships have not been confirmed in Japan. Therefore, we collected basic data on the relationship between number sense and mathematical facts, computation, and mathematical reasoning, and aimed to clarify the relationship between the two. We administered tasks on number sense (ordinal and cardinal), number facts, computation, and mathematical reasoning (4th grade only) to 188 4th graders, 371 1st graders, and 330 2nd graders in regular classes in public elementary schools enrolled. The results revealed that number sense cardinality explains the significant relationship of some impairments in number facts and computation. The results of the present study were considered to replicate the results of previous studies in which number sense was significantly associated with explaining numerical facts, computation, and mathematical reasoning, and to show that this relationship was common across ages.