The cognitive profile of Chinese children with mathematics difficulties.
This study examined how four domain-specific skills (arithmetic procedural skills, number fact retrieval, place value concept, and number sense) and two domain-general processing skills (working memory and processing speed) may account for Chinese children's mathematics learning difficulties. Children with mathematics difficulties (MD) of two age groups (7-8 and 9-11 years) were compared with age-matched typically achieving children. For both age groups, children with MD performed significantly worse than their age-matched controls on all of the domain-specific and domain-general measures. Further analyses revealed that the MD children with literacy difficulties (MD/RD group) performed the worst on all of the measures, whereas the MD-only group was significantly outperformed by the controls on the four domain-specific measures and verbal working memory. Stepwise discriminant analyses showed that both number fact retrieval and place value concept were significant factors differentiating the MD and non-MD children. To conclude, deficits in domain-specific skills, especially those of number fact retrieval and place value understanding, characterize the profile of Chinese children with MD.
Chan
Becky Mee-yin
BM
Child Assessment Service, Department of Health, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Ho
Connie Suk-han
CS
D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015897:Comorbidity; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007859:Learning Disabilities / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008433:Mathematics; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D008606:Mental Processes; D011340:Problem Solving