From Numbers to Words: An analysis of errors made by students with dyslexia
Rebecca Yeo, Siti Aishah Bte Shukri, Aishah Abdullah & Serene Low
Dyslexia Association of Singapore
It is widely acknowledged that any natural number can be expressed in three forms its Arabic numeral form (also known as symbolic form), its word form and its non-symbolic form (such as repeating the same shape to represent the quantity) The ability to read and recognize numbers is one of the basic skills in mathematics Research has found that children’s ability to recognize number in kindergarten is a good predictor of their mathematical achievement in first grade ( Schiltz, Brunner Martin, 2014).
The process of translating numbers from one representation to another is called transcoding In this research, we are interested in the challenges students with dyslexia encounter in the process of transcoding numbers from their Arabic numeral form to their word equivalent Dyslexia is a specific learning difference caused by a core deficit in phonological processing This results in one having significant difficulties with reading, writing and spelling It can also be accompanied with other secondary deficits such as poor working memory, slower retrieval speed and poor comprehension The researchers of this study noted that most of the Primary Four students (between 9 5 to 10 years old) with dyslexia on the DAS Maths programme had difficulties with expressing numbers in words. This study seeks to explore the challenges these students have with expressing 5 digit numbers in words by looking at the types of errors they were making in this task It is hoped that by studying their patterns of errors, teachers would be able to develop strategies to help students effectively.
