Title: Characteristics of Students with Learning Disabilities in Mathematics
1Characteristics of Students with Learning
Disabilities in Mathematics
- F. D. Rivera Ph.D.
- Department of Mathematics
- San Jose State University CA
- Module 15 Session 1
2Characteristics of Students with Learning
Disabilities in Math
- 1. They have trouble performing computations
doing problem solving understanding terms and
concepts establishing correct inferences and
connecting prior or new knowledge (Jarrett 1999
p. 3).
3Characteristics of Students with Learning
Disabilities in Math
- 2. They have visual-spatial-motor or
perceptual-motor deficiencies. - They lack the perceptual skills necessary for
number sense and conceptual understanding
including poor spatial and written
representational skills (Garrett 1998). - Their motor skills are deficient as evidenced by
how they write their numbers and symbols (i.e.
they are oftentimes illegible or slow) (Mercer
1997 Culatta Tompkins Werts 2003).
4Characteristics of Students with Learning
Disabilities in Math
- 3. They have weak memory skills related to
achieving mastery recall and retrieval of
facts. - They could not follow procedures and processes
orally and in written form and deal with problems
that have multiple parts (Mercer 1997 Culatta
Tompkins Werts 2003 Bley Thornton 1995).
5Characteristics of Students with Learning
Disabilities in Math
- 4. They have weak language skills as evidenced
by their difficulty in processing terms that have
multiple meanings. - They are unsuccessful in oral problem solving
(Mercer 1997 Culatta Tompkins Werts 2003).
- They especially find it difficult to understand
mathematical terms and concepts. For instance
they easily get confused with spatial and
quantitative references such as before after
between one more than and one less than
(Perspectives 1998 p. 1) and have trouble with
terms that have several available
interpretations.
6Characteristics of students with learning
disabilities in math
- 5. They have weak abstract reasoning skills as
indicated by their inability to deal with word
problem solving comparing and interpreting
symbols (Mercer 1997 Culatta Tompkins
Werts 2003).
7Characteristics of students with learning
disabilities in math
- 6. They have weak metacognitive abilities as
indicated by their inability to determine a
priori strategies that could assist them solve a
problem successfully. - They experience difficulty recognizing and
establishing patterns of actions (or schemes)
even if they are or have been presented with a
series of similar problems and problem solutions
(Mercer 1997 Culatta Tompkins Werts 2003
Montague Applegate 1993).
8Characteristics of students with learning
disabilities in math
- 7. They are usually developmentally delayed
(Cawley Miller 1989).
9Characteristics of students with learning
disabilities in math
- 8. They have weak generalization skills
(Woodward 1991 Rivera Smith 1987) that
affect the way they perform computations (Kirby
Becker 1988) and solve applied problems
(Montague 1992).
10Characteristics of Students with Learning
Disabilities in Math
- 9. They are not entirely deficient in all domains
of the mathematics being learned. For instance
some children may have poor skills in one or
several areas in arithmetic but have average to
better skills in other areas (Geary 2004).
11Characteristics of Students with Learning
Disabilities in Math
- 10. They can recall formulas and use them but
they do not understand why they work
(Perspectives 1998).
12Characteristics of Students with Learning
Disabilities in Math
- 11. They have difficulty seeing the forest from
the trees and vice-versa. That is some could
either see the big picture of a process but are
unable to successfully perform the corresponding
operations in detail or could proceed one step at
a time but remain unable to understand what the
whole process is all about (Perspectives 1998
Garnett 1998). - This view is similar to cases with some students
with learning disabilities in math who could
easily grasp concepts but fail to exhibit
computational competence (Garnett 1998). - Further they have difficulty making a connection
and integrating between parts and the
corresponding wholes because of their weak memory
skills and poor sequencing strategies
(Perspectives 1998).
13Characteristics of Students with Learning
Disabilities in Math
- 12. They get the ideas and are eager to solve
however their answers are oftentimes inaccurate
(Perspectives 1998).
14Characteristics of Students with Learning
Disabilities in Math (Geary 2004)
- 13. With respect to number concepts such as
understanding place-value structures or
associating a number with a quantity and its
correct symbol and word it appears that
mathematical disability among primary-grades
children is not an authentic disability. That
is students with and without mathematical
disability experience relatively the same
difficulty understanding numbers.
15Characteristics of students with learning
disabilities in math (Geary 2004)
- 14. With respect to counting primary-grades
children both with and without mathematical
disability understand the principles of
one-to-one correspondence stable order and
cardinality which are all necessary in being able
to count competently. - One area in which the two groups differ is their
understanding of order irrelevance. students with
learning disabilities in math have difficulty
with tasks that require counting objects in their
non-adjacent order. For them counting is a
fixed mechanical activity (p. 3). - Another area that students with learning
disabilities in math have difficulty with is in
remembering the correct number counted for a
given set of objects.
16Characteristics of students with learning
disabilities in math (Geary 2004)
- 15. With respect to arithmetic and arithmetical
strategies students with learning disabilities
in math have weak memory skills. This means that
even if they are capable of recalling a basic
fact they still find it difficult to master and
recall as many basic facts such as 7 2 or 2 x 6
as they could unlike their regular counterparts
who could accomplish this in a systematic manner.
- Further they tend to forget facts rather
quickly (p. 3). Having weak memory skills is an
indication that students with learning
disabilities in math have difficulty storing
information in long-term memory. - Another source of memory weakness is due to the
fact that even if students with learning
disabilities in math could recall a fact in
long-term memory they have difficulty
suppressing other information that they think is
relevant but actually is not which only confuses
them. For instance a child could easily recall
how to obtain the sum of 2 and 3. The problem
starts when the child thinks that 4 and 6 are
also possible answers since 4 follows
sequentially after 2 and 3 and that the product
of 2 and 3 is 6 (pp. 3-4).
17Students with Learning Disabilities in Math
- 16. Concerning arithmetical strategies students
with learning disabilities in math employ and get
stuck at performing immature procedures for
combining numbers more often than the unlabeled
students. For instance in finding the sum of 3
5 students with learning disabilities in math
tend to do a count-all (i.e. raise 5 fingers
raise 3 fingers then count 1 through 8) instead
of a count-on strategy (i.e. raise 5 fingers and
then count on through 8) that is more efficient
and practical. - In the case of more complex additions say the
sum of two two-digit numbers while students with
learning disabilities in math could perform
additions correctly by columns they have
difficulty putting them all together in the
right order (p. 4).
18Cognitive Competences of students with learning
disabilities in math (Parmar Cawley 1997)
- 1. Their level of mathematical ability is two to
four grades lower than the unlabeled students. - 2. Their growth rate in mathematical ability is
one year of grade equivalent for at least two
years of formal schooling. - 3. They finish high school with a mathematical
proficiency of a 5th or a 6th grader.
19Cognitive Competences of students with learning
disabilities in math (Parmar Cawley 1997
- 4. They could only accomplish one full year of
growth in high school for the entire four years
of secondary schooling. - 5. They manifest limited competence on tests that
target minimum skills at the high school level. - 6. They produce unusual error patterns.
