J Deaf Stud Deaf Educ. 2009;14(2):260-77. doi: 10.1093/deafed/enn040. Epub 2008 Oct 23.

Deaf children's informal knowledge of multiplicative reasoning.

Journal of deaf studies and deaf education

Terezinha Nunes, Peter Bryant, Diana Burman, Daniel Bell, Deborah Evans, Darcy Hallett

PMID: 18948568 DOI: 10.1093/deafed/enn040

Abstract

Multiplicative reasoning is required in different contexts in mathematics: it is necessary to understand the concept of multipart units, involved in learning place value and measurement, and also to solve multiplication and division problems. Measures of hearing children's multiplicative reasoning at school entry are reliable and specific predictors of their mathematics achievement in school. An analysis of deaf children's informal multiplicative reasoning showed that deaf children under-perform in comparison to the hearing cohorts in their first two years of school. However, a brief training study, which significantly improved their success on these problems, suggested that this may be a performance, rather than a competence difference. Thus, it is possible and desirable to promote deaf children's multiplicative reasoning when they start school so that they are provided with a more solid basis for learning mathematics.

MeSH terms

• Child
• Child, Preschool
• Cognition*
• Deafness*
• Female
• Humans
• Learning
• Male
• Mathematics*
• Problem Solving*

Publication Types

• Journal Article
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Grant support

• G21/Action on Hearing Loss/United Kingdom