The Mistakes Made by Dyslexic Students during Mathematical Problems Solving

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the types of the mistakes that students with dyslexia might encounter during solving mathematical problems in relation to typically developing students. Participants were 30 students with diagnosis of dyslexia and 30 typical developing students, aged 10-13 years old. All participants were individually assessed through a subtest of the psychometric Mathematical Competence Criterion for children and adolescents. In addition, after completing the criterion, an interview was conducted with all students in order to gather qualitative data on the way they solved the mathematical problems and the type of mistakes the two groups presented during mathematical problem solving. The results showed statistically significant differences between the performance of students with dyslexia and the typical developing group in mathematical problem solving. In addition, students with dyslexia we found that students with dyslexia present different types of mistakes from typical developing children and they face different difficulties. These results are consistent with previous findings, which indicate that students with dyslexia have weaknesses in mathematics and specifically in mathematical problem solving.