Causes and Treatments for Math Disabilities

Response to Intervention (RTI)

• RTI is a method used by school personnel to identify learning disabilities through evidence-based educational interventions, monitoring progress, and escalating support as needed.
• RTI consists of three tiers:
  • Tier I: Universal screening of all children to assess basic academic skills.
  • Tier II: Supplemental instruction to children who show delays but haven't been identified with learning disabilities.
  • Tier III: More intensive, individualized instruction to children who continue to struggle despite Tier II interventions.

Comprehensive Assessment

• Comprehensive assessment integrates classroom observations with norm-referenced testing of academic achievement, intellectual ability, and cognitive processing.
• It helps differentiate between learning disabilities caused by cognitive processing problems and low achievement due to other factors.
• The assessment involves evaluating whether the child meets specific criteria, including normative deficits in academic skills, related cognitive processing problems, intact intellectual functioning, and ruling out alternative explanations for academic deficits.

Learning Disabilities

• Learning disabilities are characterized by academic skill deficits, underlying cognitive processing problems, and otherwise normal cognitive functioning (IQ).
• Prevalence of learning disabilities is estimated to be around 5% to 7.5% among school-age children, with reading disability being the most common.
• Boys are more likely than girls to be identified with a learning disability, and children from minority backgrounds are more likely to be classified with learning disabilities due to socioeconomic factors.

Reading Disabilities

• Reading disabilities stem from basic reading problems, including deficits in phonemic awareness and abnormalities in brain regions associated with reading.
• Reading fluency and comprehension problems are associated with deficits in processing speed, verbal working memory, and rapid automatized naming (RAN).
• Effective treatments for children with reading disabilities include systematic instruction in phoneme awareness and phonics for basic reading problems, guided oral reading for fluency, and interventions targeting underlying cognitive deficits such as RAVE-O.

Written Expression Disabilities

• Children with writing disabilities often spend less time on planning, translating, and reviewing, resulting in disjointed writing with frequent errors.
• Effective treatments for written expression disabilities include self-regulated strategy development (SRSD), focusing on planning, implementing, and evaluating written expression strategies.

Math Disabilities

• Children with math disabilities often have delays in developing number sense, impacting their ability to subitize, mentally represent quantities, and understand the ordinal nature of numbers.
• Math disabilities are associated with difficulties in remembering math facts and procedures, leading to slower calculation speed and reliance on immature counting strategies.
• Effective treatments for math disabilities include direct instruction, self-instruction, and mediated or assisted instruction, which target specific math skills and strategies.

Case Study: Response to Intervention (RTI)

• The case study illustrates how two boys, Rafe and Ricky, were identified and supported through the RTI process, with Rafe responding to group-based intervention in Tier II and Ricky requiring individualized instruction in Tier III.

Addressing Parent Concerns

• To address concerns about language delays, it's essential to reassure parents that late language emergence is relatively common and does not necessarily indicate a more serious problem.
• However, it's also important to suggest monitoring progress and considering professional evaluation if language delays persist or worsen.

Language Problems and Parent-Child Interactions

• While there may be a correlation between impoverished parent-child interactions and children's language problems, correlation does not imply causation.
• Other factors, such as genetic predispositions, neurological differences, or environmental stressors, could also contribute to children's language difficulties.

Interventions for Stuttering

• Encouraging children who stutter to "relax" during conversations is not usually effective because stuttering is a complex speech disorder with underlying neurological and psychological components.
• A more effective intervention for older children and adolescents who stutter may involve speech therapy techniques such as fluency shaping, stuttering modification, or cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Differentiating Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Social Communication Disorder (SCD)

• Children who meet diagnostic criteria for ASD may not necessarily be diagnosed with SCD because ASD encompasses a broader range of symptoms and impairments beyond social communication difficulties alone.
• Differential diagnosis between ASD and SCD involves careful assessment of a range of symptoms, behaviors, and developmental history to determine the most appropriate diagnosis.

Avoiding Misdiagnosis of Children from Low-SES Families

• School psychologists and other professionals can avoid misdiagnosing children from low-SES families with learning disabilities by considering a comprehensive assessment approach that takes into account various factors that may impact academic performance.
• This approach should include gathering information from multiple sources, conducting thorough assessments of academic skills, cognitive abilities, language proficiency, and socio-emotional functioning, and considering contextual factors such as family environment, access to resources, and cultural differences.