Developmental dyscalculia, gender, and the brain.
نویسندگان
چکیده
Background Developmental dyscalculia is a primary cognitive disorder of childhood affecting the ability of an otherwise intelligent and healthy child to learn arithmetic.' Preliminary evidence indicates that developmental dyscalculia is seen in 5-6% of normal children2 3 and is as prevalent as developmental dyslexia or the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.' One of the classifications of developmental dyscalculia subdivides dyscalculia to: (1) alexia and agraphia for numbers, (2) spatial dyscalculia, (3) anarithmetia (impairment of calculation per se), (4) attentionalsequential dyscalculia, and (5) mixed type.4 Rourke and Finlayson used associated learning disabilities as a basis for their two group classification of dyscalculia: (1) reading, writing, and arithmetic equally impaired and (2) impaired arithmetic but reading and writing average or above.5 Kosc, however, emphasised the brain based nature of dyscalculia and defined it as 'a structural disorder which has its origin in a genetic or congenital disorder of those parts of the brain that are the direct anatomicophysiological substrate of the maturation of the mathematical abilities'.2 Underachievement in arithmetic is also seen in children with low intellectual ability,6 adverse psychological factors, and low socioeconomic status3'7 as well as in children with neurological disorders. In fact, developmental dyscalculia is the most frequently encountered learning disability in children with epilepsy,8 fragile X carriers, Turner's syndrome, and phenylketonuria.9 It is also a major symptom in developmental disorders of childhood such as the attention deficit hyperactivity syndrome,'0 the developmental Gerstmann's syndrome," and the developmental right hemisphere syndrome. 12 Moreover, there appears to be an unusually high prevalence ofdevelopmental dyscalculia in girls. In this article we will focus on the neurological and developmental disorders associated with dyscalculia and discuss evidence for the apparent sex difference in its occurrence.
منابع مشابه
RUNNING HEAD: Number Sense and Developmental Dyscalculia Number Sense and Developmental Dyscalculia
In this chapter we review the possible biological bases for developmental dyscalculia, which is a disorder in mathematical abilities presumed to be due to impaired brain function. By reviewing what is known about the localization of numerical cognition functions in the adult brain, the causes of acquired dyscalculia, and the normal development of numerical cognition, we propose several hypothes...
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ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Archives of disease in childhood
دوره 68 4 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 1993