Anne Lafay

We investigated the development of mathematical vocabulary understanding in young French children aged 3 to 6 years old as a function of the socioeconomic environment. A total of 306 French children were administered two tasks, respectively assessing their understanding and production of French mathematical vocabulary. The results showed differences in understanding and production of mathematical vocabulary between children in preschool/kindergarten Grade Levels 1 (3-4 yo), 2 (4-5 yo), and 3 (5-6 yo). Children from REP+ (“Réseau d’Education Prioritaire”) schools (that concerned neighborhoods or isolated sectors with the greatest concentrations of social difficulties) understood and produced less numerous mathematical terms than those from regular schools, whatever the grade level. Theoretical and practical contributions for teaching are discussed. Despite the measures as a priority education policy organized by the government in REP+ schools, the school fails to reduce the impact of social inequalities on mathematical vocabulary. Efficient intervention is therefore needed.

The aim of the present study was to examine the impact of conceptual transparency of mathematics manipulatives used in instruction on the learning of place-value concepts in typically developing second graders (n = 88) and those at-risk for mathematics learning disabilities (n = 29). We randomly assigned the children of each classification to three instructional conditions that varied according to the extent to which place-value concepts were made visible in the objects’ perceptual features. In one condition, the ten and hundreds denominations were already grouped and the ones were visible in each denomination; in the second condition the denominations were already grouped but the ones were not visible; in the third condition, we provided children with individual beads that could be attached in groups of tens and hundreds. We assessed the accuracy of the children’s representations of two- and three-digit numerals using manipulatives and their place-value knowledge on symbolic tasks. Contrary to our expectations, we found that the manipulatives requiring children to construct their own denominations were related to gains in the accuracy of the physical representations, but not to gains on the symbolic measures. We speculate that the actions involved in constructing the denominations provided opportunities for children to encode the materials’ salient features in ways that led to the greatest benefits. We suggest that teachers ensure that students encode manipulatives used during instruction in meaningful ways.

Purpose: Despite appropriate speech-language therapy interventions and school and university accommodations, college and university students with developmental reading (specific reading learning disorder [SRLD]) and spelling (specific spelling learning disorder [SSLD]) difficulties continue to experience difficulties in adulthood, notably for reading fluency, spelling to dictation, and reading comprehension. This study aimed to investigate the effects of a morphological and phonological awareness intervention on word recognition, spelling, and reading comprehension skills in university students with SRLD and SSLD. Method: Participants underwent a 3-week intervention focusing on phonological and morphological awareness. Results: The results revealed significant improvements in morphological awareness, nonword reading, irregular word reading, text-level spelling, and reading comprehension after the intervention. These findings show that interventions targeting phonological and morphological awareness may enhance the literacy skills of university students with SRLD and SSLD. However, other factors, such as individual characteristics and the intervention context, may have also influenced the present results. Conclusion: This highlights the importance of offering speech pathology interventions in higher educational settings to better support adult students with learning difficulties.

Context: Mathematical skills are essential, since mathematics is ubiquitous in industrialized countries. Mathematical difficulties persist into adulthood in people with Mathematical Learning Disabilities, formerly known as dyscalculia. Yet few studies have focused on this population, and none have measured the impact of such disorders on everyday financial skills. Aim: The aim was to investigate whether adults with mathematical difficulties have more difficulty than adults without mathematical difficulties in manipulating financial concepts and understanding purchasing situations. Method: The present study included 171 volunteers with no acquired neurological disorder. Thus, 63 adults with mathematical difficulties and 108 control participants were compared on financial tasks derived from the Italian NADL-F test (Arcara, 2017) translated and adapted into French (NADL-F-fr) for the present study: counting change, reading numbers on financial supports, paying or giving change in purchase situations, calculating percentages, defining financial terms, spotting scams. Participants also gave feedback on their skills in these areas. Results: The performance of adults with mathematical difficulties is consistent with their perception of their difficulties. They perform significantly less well at counting change, reading numbers on financial or commercial documents, estimating the amount of their shopping, calculating percentages and defining financial concepts. Conclusion: Adults with mathematical difficulties also have particular difficulty manipulating mathematics concepts related to finance. The NADL-F-fr will be a useful tool in assessing and diagnosing Mathematical Learning Disabilities for adults who couldn’t be diagnosed during childhood. In addition, these results show the importance of working with ecological financial situations in rehabilitation.

Context: Predictors of mathematical skill development are present before the kindergarten at 4-5 years old. Therefore, an assessment of mathematical skills in children of this age is useful in order to diagnose a specific learning disability or to screen a risk of such a disability in mathematics at an early stage in case of suspected difficulties. Currently, there are no recent test allowing for a thorough evaluation of skills in children of this age. Moreover, the Examath 5-8 battery demonstrates good psychometric properties in children from kindergarten to third grade and shows saturated scores at the end of kindergarten on tasks corresponding to early developmental skills. Objective: The objective of this research was therefore to investigate the acceptability, the accessibility, and the construct validity of a selection of tests from the Examath 5-8 battery in 4-5-year-old children. Method: The sample was 36 4-5-year-old children without speech-and-language therapy for mathematical or language difficulties. Results: The results showed good acceptability by children, good accessibility for the 4-5-year-old children, and good construct validity linked to the grade level (in comparison with 5-6-year-old children). Further studies will be needed to evaluate the sensitivity and discriminant validity of these tests to guarantee the diagnosis power of the battery for this age group.

Solving word problems is challenging for many children, but particularly for those with language difficulties. The objective was to examine the nature of the challenges experienced by children with language difficulties as they solved word problems in the context of a developmental‐trajectory instructional sequence. We recruited 45 third graders with (n = 17) and without (n = 28) language difficulties from public and private schools and one speech‐language therapy clinic. They solved word problems with additive change and compare structures and language that was either consistent or inconsistent with the structure. The instruction was based on successive simplifications to the problems whenever the child was unable to apply a structurally appropriate strategy: removing irrelevant literal information from the problem, simplifying the text syntactically, and removing irrelevant numerical information. The performance of children with language difficulties was lower than that of the typically developing children and the simplifications did not support performance to the same extent. The presence of irrelevant numerical information was challenging, especially for children with language difficulties. Removing irrelevant information from the problem was followed by stronger performance on change problems and those with consistent language, revealing that the instructional supports were not sufficient for compare and inconsistent problems.

Children’s emotional abilities have been shown to be related to academic performance, peer acceptance, and in-school adjustment. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of innovative emotion training designed to promote the emotional abilities of 316 preschool/kindergarten children aged from 3 to 6 years old enrolled in public schools in the first three levels (L1, L2, and L3). Another objective was to examine the transfer effects on language comprehension and mathematics abilities. The emotion training (eight sessions) focused on the identification, comprehension, and expression of emotions and were co-constructed with teachers. Children were tested before and after the training on emotion, language, and mathematics skills. Results showed an improvement in emotional abilities in young children of L1 (3–4 years) and L2 (4–5 years) in the intervention group compared to those in the non-intervention group. Also, although children’s emotion basic abilities were correlated with their language comprehension and mathematics abilities, the nature of this link was not demonstrated to be causal. Findings are discussed in regard to the influence of the level and in regard to links with academic variables.