Assessing Mathematical School Readiness

Early math skills matter for later formal mathematical performances, academic and professional success. Accordingly, it is important to accurately assess mathematical school readiness (MSR) at the beginning of elementary school. This would help identifying children who are at risk of encountering difficulties in math and then stimulate their acquisition of mathematical skills as soon as possible. In the present study, we present a new test that allows professionals working with children (e.g., teachers, school psychologists, speech therapists, and school doctors) to assess children’s MSR when they enter formal schooling in a simple, rapid and efficient manner. 346 children were assessed at the beginning of 1st Grade (6-to-7-year-olds) with a collective test assessing early mathematical abilities (T1). In addition, children’s math skills were evaluated with classical curriculum math tests at T1 and a year later, in 2nd Grade (T2, 7-to-8-year-olds). After assessing internal consistency, three tasks were retained for the final version of the MSR test. Test performance confirmed to be essentially unidimensional and systematically related to the scores children obtained in classical tests in 1st and 2nd Grade. By using the present MSR test, it is possible to identify pupils at risk of developing low math skills right from the start of formal schooling in 1st Grade. Such a tool is needed, as children’s level in math at school beginning (or school readiness) is known to be foundational for their future academic and professional carrier

Contribution de l’analyse de corpus d’échanges conversationnels à la compréhension des troubles de la communication verbale dans la maladie d’Alzheimer

Les troubles du langage font partie des troubles cognitifs présents dans la maladie d’Alzheimer. Ils sont le plus souvent étudiés dans des tâches cliniques ciblées, éloignées des situations de communication naturelle. Leur but est de mettre en évidence les déficits linguistiques comme par exemple les troubles lexico-sémantiques présents dès le début de l’évolution et spécifiques de la maladie. Nous avons choisi de compléter les épreuves classiques d’évaluation du langage par l’étude d’une situation d’échange conversationnel en essayant de dégager de nouveaux critères cliniques fonctionnels. Notre étude porte sur l’analyse automatique de corpus conversationnels recueillis auprès de 10 personnes âgées (moyenne d’âge = 90 ans) dont 5 présentant une maladie d’Alzheimer à un stade débutant à modéré (MMS moyen = 15/30). Nos analyses montrent des différences quantitatives et qualitatives entre les deux populations étudiées et proposent de s’intéresser davantage à l’interaction verbale pour mieux décrire le retentissement des troubles du langage sur la communication verbale des sujets avec maladie d’Alzheimer.Language pathologies are part of cognitive disorders specific to the Alzheimer disease. Most often, they are studied through precise clinical tasks, which are very different from situations of natural communication. Their purpose is to find evidence of linguistic deficits such as lexical and semantic troubles occurring at the early stages and specific of the disorder. We propose to enrich the classical tests used for the evaluation of language capacity with the study of conversational exchanges thanks to which we expect to find new clinical functional criteria. Our study addresses an automatic analysis of a conversational corpus collected from 10 elderly participants (mean age = 90 years) among whom 5 participants have the Alzheimer disease at early to moderate stages (mean MMS = 15/30). Our analysis shows the existence of quantitative and qualitative differences between the two studied populations and proposes to take advantage of verbal interactions in order to better describe the impact of language troubles on verbal communication of people with the Alzheimer disease

Numerical estimation in typical and atypical development : what is the core deficit?

The present thesis focused on those multiple explanations for dyscalculia assuming that this disability could be due to a) a basic numerical deficit affecting the representation and the manipulation of number magnitude (Butterworth, 1999, 2005; Wilson & Dehaene, 2007), b) an access deficit to that number magnitude from numerical symbols (Rousselle & Noël, 2007) or eventually due to c) a deficit affecting a larger magnitude system (Walsh, 2003). Several studies are presented and tested the different hypotheses by comparing children with mathematical learning disabilities (MLD) and typically achieving (TA) children’s abilities to provide approximate answers contrasting symbolic (Arabic numbers) and non-symbolic (pattern of dots) numerical magnitudes as well as continuous (quantity of liquid) magnitudes. Performances of TA adults and adults who had experienced MLD in childhood were also examined. The comparison between adults and children performances provides the characteristic and the longevity of mathematical difficulties and has implications for the diagnosis and rehabilitation of people with MLD.(PSY 3) -- UCL, 201

Estimation abilities of large numerosities in preschool children: Do they depend on school grade and socio-economic background?

The approximate number system (ANS) is thought to be a building block for the elaboration of formal mathematics. However, little is known about how this core system develops and if it can be influenced by external factors at a young age (before the child enters formal numeracy education). The purpose of this study was to examine numerical magnitude representations of 5-6 year old children at 2 different moments of Kindergarten considering children's early number competence as well as schools' socio-economic index (SEI). This study investigated estimation abilities of large numerosities using symbolic and non-symbolic output formats (8-64). In addition, we assessed symbolic and non-symbolic early number competence (1-12) at the end of the 2nd (N = 42) and the 3rd (N = 32) Kindergarten grade. By letting children freely produce estimates we observed surprising estimation abilities at a very young age (from 5 year on) extending far beyond children's symbolic explicit knowledge. Moreover, the time of testing has an impact on the ANS accuracy since 3rd Kindergarteners were more precise in both estimation tasks. Additionally, children who presented better exact symbolic knowledge were also those with the most refined ANS. However, this was true only for 3rd Kindergarteners who were a few months from receiving math instructions. In a similar vein, higher SEI positively impacted only the oldest children's estimation abilities whereas it played a role for exact early number competences already in 2nd and 3rd graders. Our results support the view that approximate numerical representations are linked to exact number competence in young children before the start of formal math education and might thus serve as building blocks for mathematical knowledge. Since this core number system was also sensitive to external components such as the SEI this implies that it can most probably be targeted and refined through specific educational strategies from preschool on

Estimation abilities of large numerosities in preschool children

The approximate number system (ANS) is thought to be a building block for the elaboration of formal mathematics. However, little is known about how this core system develops and if it can be influenced by external factors at a young age (before the child enters formal numeracy education). The purpose of this study was to examine numerical magnitude representations of 5-6 year old children at 2 different moments of Kindergarten considering children's early number competence as well as schools' socio-economic index (SEI). This study investigated estimation abilities of large numerosities using symbolic and non-symbolic output formats (8-64). In addition, we assessed symbolic and non-symbolic early number competence (1-12) at the end of the 2nd (N = 42) and the 3rd (N = 32) Kindergarten grade. By letting children freely produce estimates we observed surprising estimation abilities at a very young age (from 5 year on) extending far beyond children's symbolic explicit knowledge. Moreover, the time of testing has an impact on the ANS accuracy since 3rd Kindergarteners were more precise in both estimation tasks. Additionally, children who presented better exact symbolic knowledge were also those with the most refined ANS. However, this was true only for 3rd Kindergarteners who were a few months from receiving math instructions. In a similar vein, higher SEI positively impacted only the oldest children's estimation abilities whereas it played a role for exact early number competences already in 2nd and 3rd graders. Our results support the view that approximate numerical representations are linked to exact number competence in young children before the start of formal math education and might thus serve as building blocks for mathematical knowledge. Since this core number system was also sensitive to external components such as the SEI this implies that it can most probably be targeted and refined through specific educational strategies from preschool on

Estimation abilities of large numerosities in Kindergartners

The approximate number system (ANS) is thought to be a building block for the elaboration of formal mathematics. However, little is known about how this core system develops and if it can be influenced by external factors at a young age (before the child enters formal numeracy education). The purpose of this study was to examine numerical magnitude representations of 5-6 year old children at 2 different moments of Kindergarten considering children's early number competence as well as schools' socio-economic index (SEI). This study investigated estimation abilities of large numerosities using symbolic and non-symbolic output formats (8-64). In addition, we assessed symbolic and non-symbolic early number competence (1-12) at the end of the 2nd (N = 42) and the 3rd (N = 32) Kindergarten grade. By letting children freely produce estimates we observed surprising estimation abilities at a very young age (from 5 year on) extending far beyond children's symbolic explicit knowledge. Moreover, the time of testing has an impact on the ANS accuracy since 3rd Kindergarteners were more precise in both estimation tasks. Additionally, children who presented better exact symbolic knowledge were also those with the most refined ANS. However, this was true only for 3rd Kindergarteners who were a few months from receiving math instructions. In a similar vein, higher SEI positively impacted only the oldest children's estimation abilities whereas it played a role for exact early number competences already in 2nd and 3rd graders. Our results support the view that approximate numerical representations are linked to exact number competence in young children before the start of formal math education and might thus serve as building blocks for mathematical knowledge. Since this core number system was also sensitive to external components such as the SEI this implies that it can most probably be targeted and refined through specific educational strategies from preschool on

How the human brain discriminates numerosities: A steady-state visual-evoked potentials study

This study aimed at measuring rapidly and objectively human adults' sensitivity to (non)symbolic numerical stimuli, using the steady-state visual-evoked potentials (1) response in the context of repetition suppression (2). It aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of the method and evaluate its potential to tap into the basic numerical representation systems that can be assumed to underlie symbolic and non-symbolic magnitude comparisons. Following a short duration experiment, we observed a large reduction of signal specifically at the 3.5 Hz response, over the occipito-temporo-parietal cortex. This reduction was greater for symbolic than non-symbolic control stimuli. This first observation of repetition suppression to fast periodic stimulation of symbolic and non-symbolic numerosities in the human brain offers a promising tool to study the sensitivity to numerosities in the human brain in adults, but also especially in children

Discrimination of Numerosities in children studied by means of Fast Periodic Visual Stimulation

We are constantly dealing with quantities in our environment. This ability to process numerical magnitude is present in infants (Izard et al., 2009), a variety of animal species (Flombaum et al., 2005) and in tribes with small number words lexicon (Pica et al., 2004). It implies that our brain is able to extract the total number of items in a scene, regardless of perceptual interference (non-numerical properties of the stimuli). However, this ability seems to be refined through development (Halberda et al., 2012), due to visual-perception maturation and/or educational environment, e.g. when learning arithmetic. Here, we measured rapidly and objectively 6-to-12-y.o. children’s sensitivity to (non-)symbolic numerical stimuli (dots or Arabic numbers), using fast periodic visual stimulation (FVPS) as implemented in a repetition-suppression paradigm (Rossion & Boremanse, 2011). Children were presented with stimuli appearing at 3.5 items/second (fundamental frequency=3.5 Hz), for 60 seconds. Half of the sequences consisted of different stimuli at every cycle of stimulation (e.g., “10”, “18”, “12”,...), the other half of sequences were composed of same stimuli (“10”) repeated throughout the whole sequence. We observed a large increase of the EEG response at the fundamental frequency (a steady-state visual evoked potential; Regan, 1966) over the lateral parieto-occipital electrodes sites. This response was reduced when the same stimulus was repeated, especially for symbolic stimuli. These results are correlated to children’s age and visual-perception, arithmetic and non-symbolic numerical abilities (L-POST, KRT, Panamath). They indicate that FPVS of (non-)symbolic numerosities is a promising tool to study children’s sensitivity to numerical magnitude

Is heart rate variability biofeedback useful in children and adolescents? A systematic review.

Heart rate variability (HRV) is considered as an index of both physical and emotional health, and biofeedback aiming to increase the level of HRV has demonstrated extensive beneficial effects. Although HRV biofeedback is commonly and reliably applied in adults, the use of this technique, alone or in addition to other treatments, in children and adolescents has not been widely explored to date. This systematic review following PRISMA guidelines covers all human studies using HRV biofeedback in children and adolescents. A literature search was conducted in PsycINFO, PubMed and Scopus, and a standardized methodological quality assessment was performed. Results showed the efficiency of HRV biofeedback sessions with children and adolescents to reduce physical and mental health-related symptoms and enhance well-being. These findings underline the therapeutic value of using HRV biofeedback as a complement to more conventional behavioural and cognitive interventions to help children to manage stress and/or pain. Capitalizing on the identified strengths and shortcomings of available results, we propose research avenues as well as evidence-based clinical guidelines for using HRV biofeedback in clinical paediatric settings

How the human brain discriminates numerosities: A steady-state visual-evoked potentials study

This study aimed at measuring rapidly and objectively human adults' sensitivity to (non)symbolic numerical stimuli, using the steady-state visual-evoked potentials (1) response in the context of repetition suppression (2). It aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of the method and evaluate its potential to tap into the basic numerical representation systems that can be assumed to underlie symbolic and non-symbolic magnitude comparisons. Following a short duration experiment, we observed a large reduction of signal specifically at the 3.5 Hz response, over the occipito-temporo-parietal cortex. This reduction was greater for symbolic than non-symbolic control stimuli. This first observation of repetition suppression to fast periodic stimulation of symbolic and non-symbolic numerosities in the human brain offers a promising tool to study the sensitivity to numerosities in the human brain in adults, but also especially in children