Clinical trial NCT03354481: Automatization of Counting Procedures in Children With Dyscalculia
Official title: Automatization of Counting Procedures in Children With Dyscalculia
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Dyscalculia
Keywords: Dyscalculia
Lead sponsor: Hospices Civils de Lyon
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: University of Lausanne
First posted: 2017-11-28
Enrollment: 3
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 8
Maximum age (years): 11
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: NA
Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: 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.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Age between 8 and 11 years old
* Having a dyscalculia as described in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) V

Exclusion Criteria:

* Presenting a global intellectual deficit

Primary outcomes:
measure: Response times to solve an informatics task on simple arithmetic facts resolution
timeFrame: Inclusion
measure: Response times to solve an informatics task on simple arithmetic facts resolution
timeFrame: 12 months
measure: Response times to solve an informatics task on simple arithmetic facts resolution
timeFrame: 24 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Percentage of correct responses to solve the informatics task on simple arithmetic facts resolution
timeFrame: 0+ 12 + 24 months
measure: Result of the digit span memory task
timeFrame: 0 month
measure: Processing speed in an informatics task on arrow orientation
timeFrame: 0 month
measure: Result of the Corsi block tapping test
timeFrame: 0 month
measure: Result of the Tempo Test Rekenen
timeFrame: 0 month
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Bron
country: France
facility: Hopital Femme Mère Enfant
Study officials:
References: