Abstract:

Specific Learning Disorders (SLD) in young adults and, particularly, in university students, represent a promising research area. Several studies have analyzed the characteristics of Specific Learning Disorders in the adulthood, confirming the persistence of difficulties even in this age group. However, most of the studies in the literature mainly focused on the evolution of dyslexia, and only few studies analyzed the characteristics of dyscalculia in the adulthood and its change over time.

The objective of the present contribution is to analyze the characteristics of SLD in the adulthood, examining specifically the difficulties of calculation. For this purpose, we designed a case-control study. The experimental group consisted of university students with SLD-mixed type (dyslexia, dysorthography, dyscalculia), whereas the control group consisted of university students without SLD. We assessed the performance profile in tests assessing the number and calculation skills, which were ad-hoc built for this age group. The working memory was measured through the digit span of the WAIS-IV.

The experimental group consisted of 24 students (average age 21,93, SD = 2.14), 14 males and 10 females. The control group consisted of 24 students (average age 22,13 SD = 1.95), 13 males and 11 females.

The comparison between groups, by the Student's t test for independent samples, showed significant differences (p<0.01) in the number and calculation skills and in the verbal working memory tasks. The experimental group was characterized by a low performance in the basic calculation processes and in the recovery of the arithmetic facts and by poor verbal memory capacities. Furthermore, the analysis showed a correlation (r di Pearson) between calculation skills and the verbal working memory, confirming this component as fundamental for learning, also in this age group. Finally, analyzing the performance of subjects with SLD in the tests that evaluate the semantic and lexical aspects of calculation, we observed greater difficulty in the test of dictation of numbers, compared to the number reading test. This result may be associated with the subject's inability to maintain the entire numerical information in the verbal working memory, thus confirming the persistence of the memory deficit even in this age group.

Keywords:

Specific Learning Disorders, calculation skills, working memory, university students.