Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2021 Jun;62(6):704-714. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13397. Epub 2021 Mar 8.
Two hypotheses were tested regarding the characteristics of children with mathematical learning disabilities (MLD): (a) that children with MLD would have a 'core deficit' in basic number processing skills; and (b) that children with MLD would be at the end of a developmental continuum and have impairments in many cognitive skills.
From a large sample (N = 1,303) of typically developing children, we selected a group definable as having MLD. The children were given measures of basic number processing and domain-general constructs. Differences between the observed sample and a simulated population were estimated using Cohen's d and Bayes factors. Receiver operating characteristic curves were plotted, and the area under the curve was computed to ascertain the diagnostic power of measures.
Results suggest that the differences between the MLD and control group can be defined along with general characteristics of the population rather than assuming single or multiple 'core deficits'. None of the measures of interest exceeded the diagnostic power that could be derived via simulation from the dimensional characteristics of the general population.
There is no evidence for core deficit(s) in MLD. We suggest that future research should focus on representative samples of typical populations and on carefully tested clinical samples confirming to the criteria of international diagnostic manuals. Clinical diagnoses require that MLD is persistent and resistant to intervention, so studies would deliver results less exposed to measurement fluctuations. Uniform diagnostic criteria would also allow for the easy cross-study comparison of samples overcoming a serious limitation of the current literature.
针对具有数学学习障碍（MLD）的儿童的特征，我们检验了两个假设：（a）MLD 儿童在基本数字处理技能方面存在“核心缺陷”；（b）MLD 儿童处于发展连续体的末端，在许多认知技能方面存在障碍。
我们从一个较大的（N=1303）的正常发展儿童样本中选择了一个可定义为患有 MLD 的群体。这些儿童接受了基本数字处理和领域一般性结构的测量。使用 Cohen 的 d 和贝叶斯因子来估计观察样本和模拟人口之间的差异。绘制了接收器操作特征曲线，并计算了曲线下的面积，以确定测量的诊断能力。
结果表明，MLD 组和对照组之间的差异可以根据人口的一般特征来定义，而不是假设存在单一或多种“核心缺陷”。感兴趣的任何措施都没有超过从一般人群的维度特征通过模拟得出的诊断能力。
没有证据表明 MLD 存在核心缺陷。我们建议未来的研究应集中在典型人群的代表性样本上，并对符合国际诊断手册标准的经过仔细测试的临床样本进行研究。临床诊断要求 MLD 是持续的且对干预有抵抗力，因此研究结果将更少受到测量波动的影响。统一的诊断标准还将允许轻松地对不同研究的样本进行跨研究比较，克服了当前文献的一个严重限制。
