Abstract:

Dyscalculia/developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a permanent specific learning disability that leads to impairments in learning basic arithmetic facts, performing fluent and accurate calculations, and processing numerical information (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013). Subitizing, an essential skill for arithmetic development and counting (Özdem & Olkun, 2021), is one of the difficulties students with dyscalculia have (Landerl et al., 2004). Subitizing means “instantly seeing how many?” and being able to perceive the numerosity of a group (Clements, 1999) directly. The study by Panner et al. (2011) showed that an increase in subitizing skills provides an increase in counting and addition operation speed and accuracy. Therefore, this ability should also be developed in students with dyscalculia. Before developing this skill, it is necessary to determine the subitizing levels of those students. From this point of view, the aim of this study, which is part of a larger teaching experiment, was to determine the current subitizing level of a 3rd-grade student with dyscalculia before the intervention. The participant of the study was a 3rd-grade student (Ali) diagnosed with a specific learning disability and attending a private education institution for his diagnosis in Ankara, Turkey. To determine how Ali subitized before the teaching experiment sessions, a subitizing pre-test that consisted of 18 questions was applied. Video recordings of this test were transcribed, and data were analyzed using qualitative methods. The study’s findings indicated that Ali could generally count the dots immediately when the number of dots was below four, which refers to perceptual subitizing (Clements, 1999). However, when the number of dots was above four or the dots were in random order, he mostly counted dots one by one. Moreover, he generally missed one dot when the number of dots was eight or nine. Therefore, he needed to touch the dots while counting. This indicated that Ali has difficulty in conceptual subitizing (Clements, 1999).

References:
[1] American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
[2] Clements, D. H. (1999). Subitizing: What is it? Why teach it? Teaching Children Mathematics,5,400–405.
[3] Fletcher, J. M., Lyon, G. R., Fuchs, L. S., & Barnes, M. A. (2006). Learning disabilities: From identification to intervention: Guilford press.
[4] Landerl, K., Bevan, A., & Butterworth, B. (2004). Developmental dyscalculia and basic numerical capacities: A study of 8–9-year-old students. Cognition,93(2), 99–125.
[5] Mutlu, Y. (2016). Bilgisayar destekli öğretim materyallerinin matematik öğrenme güçlüğü yaşayan öğrencilerin sayı algılama becerileri üzerindeki etkilerinin incelenmesi [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Atatürk.
[6] Özdem, Ş., & Olkun, S. (2021). Improving mathematics achievement via conceptual subitizing skill training. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 52(4), 565-579.

Keywords:

Dyscalculia, subitizing, number sense.