title: Mathematical difficulties in developmental coordination disorder: Symbolic and nonsymbolic number processing.
abstract: At school, children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) struggle with mathematics. However, little attention has been paid to their numerical cognition abilities. The goal of this study was to better understand the cognitive basis for mathematical difficulties in children with DCD. Twenty 7-to-10 years-old children with DCD were compared to twenty age-matched typically developing children using dot and digit comparison tasks to assess symbolic and nonsymbolic number processing and in a task of single digits additions. Results showed that children with DCD had lower performance in nonsymbolic and symbolic number comparison tasks than typically developing children. They were also slower to solve simple addition problems. Moreover, correlational analyses showed that children with DCD who experienced greater impairments in the nonsymbolic task also performed more poorly in the symbolic tasks. These findings suggest that DCD impairs both nonsymbolic and symbolic number processing. A systematic assessment of numerical cognition in children with DCD could provide a more comprehensive picture of their deficits and help in proposing specific remediation.
authors.affiliation: INSERM, U992, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, CEA/SAC/DSV/DRM/NeuroSpin, Bât 145, Point Courrier 156, F-91191 Gif/Yvette, France; CEA, DSV/I2BM, NeuroSpin Center, Bât 145, Point Courrier 156, F-91191 Gif/Yvette, France; Univ Paris-Sud, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Bât 300, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gomez
authors.affiliation: INSERM, U992, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, CEA/SAC/DSV/DRM/NeuroSpin, Bât 145, Point Courrier 156, F-91191 Gif/Yvette, France; CEA, DSV/I2BM, NeuroSpin Center, Bât 145, Point Courrier 156, F-91191 Gif/Yvette, France; Univ Paris-Sud, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Bât 300, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Piazza
authors.affiliation: INSERM, U992, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, CEA/SAC/DSV/DRM/NeuroSpin, Bât 145, Point Courrier 156, F-91191 Gif/Yvette, France; CEA, DSV/I2BM, NeuroSpin Center, Bât 145, Point Courrier 156, F-91191 Gif/Yvette, France; Univ Paris-Sud, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Bât 300, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Antoinette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jobert
authors.affiliation: INSERM, U992, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, CEA/SAC/DSV/DRM/NeuroSpin, Bât 145, Point Courrier 156, F-91191 Gif/Yvette, France; CEA, DSV/I2BM, NeuroSpin Center, Bât 145, Point Courrier 156, F-91191 Gif/Yvette, France; Univ Paris-Sud, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Bât 300, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Ghislaine
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dehaene-Lambertz
authors.affiliation: INSERM, U992, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, CEA/SAC/DSV/DRM/NeuroSpin, Bât 145, Point Courrier 156, F-91191 Gif/Yvette, France; CEA, DSV/I2BM, NeuroSpin Center, Bât 145, Point Courrier 156, F-91191 Gif/Yvette, France; Univ Paris-Sud, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Bât 300, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Stanislas
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dehaene
authors.affiliation: INSERM, U992, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, CEA/SAC/DSV/DRM/NeuroSpin, Bât 145, Point Courrier 156, F-91191 Gif/Yvette, France; CEA, DSV/I2BM, NeuroSpin Center, Bât 145, Point Courrier 156, F-91191 Gif/Yvette, France; Univ Paris-Sud, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Bât 300, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France. Electronic address: caroline.huron.unicog@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huron
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Approximate number system; Developmental coordination disorder; Mathematics learning difficulties; Numerical cognition; Numerical development