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Cognitive Arithmetic and Problem Solving

A Comparison of Children with Specific and General Mathematics Difficulties

Nancy C. Jordan, is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of Delaware. Her current interests include mathematics disabilities and cognitive development. Address: Nancy C. Jordan, College of Education, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716; e-mail: njordan@.udel.edu

Teresa Oettinger Montani

Teresa Oettinger Montani, is an assistant professor in the graduate program in learning disabilities at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Her current interests include mathematical performance and cognitive strategy use in children and adolescents with learning disabilities.

This study examined problem-solving and number-fact skills in two subgroups of third-grade children with mathematics difficulties (MD): MD-specific (n = 12) and MD-general (n = 12). The MD-specific group had difficulties in mathematics but not in reading, and the MD-general group had difficulties in reading as well as in mathematics. A comparison group of nonimpaired children (n = 24) also was included. The findings showed that on both story and number-fact problems, the MD-specific group performed worse than the nonimpaired group in timed conditions but not in untimed conditions. The MD-general group, on the other hand, performed worse than the nonimpaired group, regardless of whether tasks were timed or not. An analysis of children's strategies in untimed conditions showed that both the MD-specific and the MD-general groups relied more on backup strategies than the nonimpaired group. However, children in the MD-specific group executed backup strategies more skillfully than children in the MD-general group, allowing them to achieve parity with children in the nonimpaired group when tasks were not timed. The findings suggest that children with specific MD have circumscribed deficits associated with fact retrieval, whereas children with general MD have more basic delays associated with problem conceptualization and execution of calculation procedures.

Journal of Learning Disabilities, Vol. 30, No. 6, 624-634 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/002221949703000606


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