Abstract:

Dyscalculia is a learning difficulty whose diagnosis often occurs when entering high school and sometimes it is not even diagnosed or in an inconsistently manner. This makes these children know in their own skin what is school failure and the corresponding loss of self-esteem.

The objective of this work is to present a test that carried out at school to first year high school students give the call of attention to possible cases of dyscalculia not previously detected and then in these cases carry out brainstem auditory evoked potential (BAEP) tests to conclude the diagnosis and in case of confirmation of the difficulty to be able to start the programs with the student of adequate intervention.

The test has been prepared taking into account the diagnostic criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and it was considered tests related to the criterion rather than tests related to the norm, since the objective is not only to know how much a person is moving away from a pre-established level of performance, which is what the tests related to the norm, but also in what percentage of execution the evaluated criterion reaches, which is what the tests related to the criterion value since the test has to detect if a child has a dyscalculia problem and not position it with respect to the rest of the class.

In the cases of children who with the test indicate the possibility of dyscalculia of the evoked potential to be applied, both the latencies and the amplitudes will be taken into account, the waves from I to VI, and in both ears. It should be said that for a good diagnosis it has been essential to also take into account wave VI (to date, only up to V was taken into account) and also take into account both ears.
The use of the test in secondary school classrooms and the subsequent application of the BAEP will allow detecting those cases of dyscalculia not detected in the previous study stages and it will be possible to intervene appropriately.

Keywords:

Dyscalculia, detection test, brainstem auditory evoked potential.