Föräldrars upplevelser av att förlora ett barn i cancer
It is not uncommon for math difficulties and reading difficulties to occur simultaneously. Despite this, math and reading difficulties are thought to have different cognitive profiles where math difficulties are linked to number sense; an innate ability to understand, approximate and manipulate both quantities and numerical information, whereas reading difficulties are linked to phonological ability; an innate ability to understand, create representations of and manipulate phonological information. A possible link between the difficulties is that phonological abilities also could affect mathematical ability. Support for this comes from studies where comorbid math and reading difficulties are associated with more severe difficulties in arithmetic ability compared to those with isolated math difficulties. The purpose of this study is to examine whether isolated math difficulties, isolated reading difficulties and comorbid math and reading difficulties can be linked to deficits in number sense, phonological ability or both of these, and whether comorbid math and reading difficulties differ in performance in mathematical tasks compared to isolated math difficulties for children in second grade. The study was carried out by testing 161 second grade children in arithmetic performance, reading performance, number sense and phonological ability. Based on performance in arithmetic and reading participants were divided into four groups: math difficulties (MD), reading difficulties (LD), comorbid math and reading difficulties (MD/LD) and control group. Statistical comparisons between groups were calculated by use of ANCOVAs, with non-verbal intelligence as covariate, and by independent t-test. Results gave partial support for the proposed core deficits for math and reading difficulties respectively, mainly concerning math difficulties and number sense deficits. The MD group performed significantly poorer in the non-symbolic number sense test.The group LD did not perform significantly poorer in respect to any task. The group MD/LD performed significantly poorer regarding subtraction, symbolic number sense tests and phonological awareness. Based on these results it can be discussed whether a link between number sense deficits and phonological awareness deficits may cause difficulty with learning and manipulating symbolic digit number.