Special Populations
Special Populations
Numeracy and Mathematics in Children with Hearing Loss
Many studies highlight the language and literacy difficulties faced by children with hearing loss, but very few have considered the numeracy and mathematical skills of these children. Whilst language difficulties may contribute to mathematical difficulties, there is evidence that even very basic numerical skills may be delayed in children with hearing loss.
Prof. Bull's recent research (Bull et al., 2018), reported that children with hearing loss were less accurate when making estimations about which display contained more items. This task is used to measure the Approximate Number System (ANS) – an approximate representation of magnitude that helps us to make decisions of more or less when there are too many items to count (or when we can’t count, e.g., young infants!). In trying to understand why children with hearing loss may have difficulties forming accurate representations of magnitude, the team considered empirical evidence showing that multisensory information facilitates early numerical learning.
A number of studies (e.g., Jordan, Suanda, & Brannon, 2008 and Jordan and Baker, 2011) have shown that preschoolers who were given multi-sensory numerical information demonstrated more sensitive numerical discrimination ability. Children with hearing loss are lacking this multi-sensory information about number from the moment they are born, and as such, may not develop (or will develop at a slower rate) as precise a representation of number as hearing children.
Providing multiple numerical cues using one sense might help, allowing children to benefit from receiving multiple sources of numerical information, even if it is not multisensory. Early intervention studies that address this question will help to determine whether this really is a source of poorer ANS acuity in children with hearing loss.
If you are interested in research involving children with hearing loss or auditory processing disorders, please contact Rebecca Bull at r.bull@mq.edu.au or Mridula Sharma at midrula.sharma@mq.edu.au