title: Quantity processing in deaf and hard of hearing children: evidence from symbolic and nonsymbolic comparison tasks.
abstract: Deaf children usually achieve lower scores on numerical tasks than normally hearing peers. Explanations for mathematical disabilities in hearing children are based on quantity representation deficits (Geary, 1994) or on deficits in accessing these representations (Rousselle & Noël, 2008). The present study aimed to verify, by means of symbolic (Arabic digits) and nonsymbolic (dot constellations and hands) magnitude comparison tasks, whether deaf children show deficits in representations or in accessing numerical representations. The study participants were 10 prelocutive deaf children and 10 normally hearing children. Numerical distance and magnitude were manipulated. Response time (RT) analysis showed similar magnitude and distance effects in both groups on the 3 tasks. However, slower RTs were observed among the deaf participants on the symbolic task alone. These results suggest that although both groups' quantity representations were similar, the deaf group experienced a delay in accessing representations from symbolic codes.
authors: José Miguel
authors: JM
authors: Rodríguez-Santos
authors: Marina
authors: M
authors: Calleja
authors: Javier
authors: J
authors: García-Orza
authors: Mauricio
authors: M
authors: Iza
authors: Jesús
authors: J
authors: Damas
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D003071:Cognition; D032882:Comprehension; D003638:Deafness / Q000523:psychology*; D060345:Education of Persons with Hearing Disabilities / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics / Q000193:education*; D008568:Memory; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D013561:Symbolism; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis