View clinical trials related to Dyscalculia.
Filter by:The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of an intervention program for low-performing first graders in mathematics. .
The purpose of this study is to investigate neurocognitive mechanisms underlying response to intervention aimed at enhancing, and remediating weaknesses in, numerical skills in children, including those with mathematical learning disabilities (MLD).
The present study grounds on the absence of evidence-based treatment in individuals with developmental dyscalculia (DD). At this topic, the present study will explore the potential effect of transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) over dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) or posterior parietal cortex (PPC), cerebral areas usually disrupted in individuals with DD, in addition to a usual treatment such as cognitive training. Therefore, the investigators hypothesized that active tRNS over DLPFC or PPC combined to cognitive training will boost math and math-related skills in children and adolescents with DD, modulating theta/beta ratio around stimulated cerebral network. On the contrary, sham tRNS (placebo) over DLPFC or PPC combined to cognitive training will not have significant effect in improving math skills. Further, both active and sham tRNS combined to cognitive training will be safe and well tolerated.
The main purpose of this clinical trials is to explore short-term effects of coordinated intervention versus the business-as-usual school program on the primary endpoints of post-intervention word-reading fluency and arithmetic fluency. The study population is students who begin 1st grade with delays in word reading and calculations. Students who meet entry criteria are randomly assigned to coordinated intervention across reading and math, reading intervention, math intervention, and a business-as-usual control group (schools' typical program). The 3 researcher-delivered interventions last 15 weeks (3 sessions per week; 30 minutes per session). Students in all 4 conditions are tested before researcher-delivered intervention begins and after it ends.
Researchers in numerical cognition usually think that the greatest and most common difficulty in children suffering from dyscalculia is retrieval of arithmetic facts from long-term memory. However, we have recently shown that retrieval might not be the optimum strategy in mental arithmetic. In fact, expert adults would rather solve simple problems such as 3 + 2 by automated and unconscious procedures. Therefore, we hypothesize that children with dyscalculia might not present deficit in retrieval but, instead, in counting procedure automatization. The aim of the current project is to test this challenging position. Through a longitudinal approach, we plan to precisely examine the behavior of children suffering from dyscalculia over a 3-year period. Children will be aged between 8 to 11 years at the beginning of the study and we will precisely observe the evolution of their solution times when they solve simple addition problems involving one-digit numbers. If children with dyscalculia still struggle with simple additions three years, their solution times plotted on the sum of the problems should still follow an exponential function. Indeed, if counting is not automated, difficulties necessarily increase with the progression on the number line or the verbal sequence, hence the exponential function. On the contrary, if counting procedures tend towards automatization, moves along a number line will progressively become as easy at the beginning of the line as at the end, hence the linear function. Importantly, a retrieval model would predict exactly the inverse pattern because, according to this model, the linear function, which is unanimously considered as the hallmark of counting procedures, should progressively be replaced by a non-linear function through practice.
Background: - Developmental dyscalculia is a learning disability in which individuals have difficulty learning or comprehending mathematics or other number concepts (such as keeping score during games, measuring time, or estimating distance). Developmental dyscalculia affects certain parts of the brain that are required for processing numbers. Research has shown that a form of brain stimulation called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), applied when healthy individuals are being trained to carry out tasks with numbers, improved the ability to process numbers and solve math problems. More research is needed about whether tDCS can improve number processing in people with developmental dyscalculia. Objectives: - To examine whether the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation can help individuals with developmental dyscalculia perform mathematical calculations. Eligibility: - Individuals between 18 and 50 years of age who have been diagnosed with developmental dyscalculia, or are healthy volunteers without dyscalculia. Design: - Participants will have a screening visit and seven study visits. The screening visit and six of the study visits will take place consecutively over the course of 6 days, and the final visit will take place 3 months after the initial participation. - Participants will be screened with a medical history, physical and neurological examination, and a brief examination to test for dyscalculia and determine the participant's dominant hand. - Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups for the study. One group will receive tDCS during training to perform a task with numbers, and the other group will receive the same training with sham stimulation. Participants will not know which group they are in. - During the study visits, participants will be trained on number tasks on 6 consecutive days. Before the tDCS or sham stimulation is applied at the beginning of the experiment and at the end of each training day, participants will perform other tasks with numbers. Participants will be evaluated based on the accuracy and speed with which they respond to the questions. - At the followup visit, participants will perform the same number tasks they completed during the study visits. No tDCS will be performed at this visit.