A Study of Two Individual Cases of Learning Difficulties
Giorgia Zaghini, Silvia Stefanelli
Developmental dyscalculia is a learning disorder affecting 1.3%- 10% of the population (Devine et al., 2013). It might have a significant impact on a school’s functioning. Children with dyscalculia could present difficulties in number sense, numbers, and calculation systems. Moreover, literature reports a high involvement of verbal working memory in arithmetic tasks (Geary et al., 2000; Passolunghi & Siegel, 2001; Passolunghi & Pazzaglia, 2004; Dehn, 2008). The scientific community is inviting clinicians, therapists and researchers to promote practices and research to clarify the effectiveness of interventions. This project aims to describe an integrated intervention programme based on verbal working memory and arithmetic skills. The two participants were attending their fourth year and presented arithmetic difficulties and poor working memory skills. We illustrated an intervention, with particular attention paid to methodology, practical suggestions, and the changes between the pre-and post-intervention. The BDE-2 results showed an improvement in number sense and number system tasks, while calculation process and fact retrieval remained critical aspects. We observed a slight development in the MDL system: child A showed an increased capacity in verbal working memory, while child B showed an increase only in the span score of digits in the forward condition. A follow-up after six months on one of the two children showed maintenance of the benefits.
Keywords
Dyscalculia, Specific learning disorders, Phonological loop, Working memory, Intervention.
