Detecting children... 1 DETECTING CHILDREN Detecting children with arithmetic disabilities from kindergarten: Evidence from a three year longitudinal study on the role of preparatory arithmetic abilities

In a three-year longitudinal study 471 children were classified, based on their performances on arithmetic tests in first and second grade, as having persistent arithmetic disabilities (AD), persistent low achieving (LA), persistent typical achieving, inconsistent arithmetic disabilities (DF1) or inconsistent low achieving in arithmetic. Significant differences in the performances on the magnitude comparison in kindergarten (at age 5 to 6) were found between the AD and LA and between the AD and DF1 groups. Furthermore, the percentage of true positive AD children (at age 7 to 8) correctly diagnosed in kindergarten by combination of procedural counting, conceptual counting and magnitude comparison tasks was 87.50%. When composing clinical samples, researchers should pay attention when stipulating restrictive or lenient cut-offs for arithmetic disabilities and select children based on their scores in two consecutive years, since the results of studies on persistent low achievers (LA) or children with inconsistent disabilities (DF1) can not be generalized to children with persistent arithmetic disabilities (AD). Detecting children... 3 Detecting children with arithmetic disabilities from kindergarten: Evidence from a three year longitudinal study on the role of preparatory arithmetic abilities