Poor readers can be good at math

In her doctoral thesis, Aspects of arithmetical performance related to reading performance: a comparison of children with different levels of achievement in mathematics and reading at different age levels, Reikerås has studied what reading abilities means for the development of arithmatic.

Reikerås wanted to find an answer to whether there is a connection between learning to read and learning to calculate and whether those who do not perform well in reading also fail in math classes.

Comprehensive study
Reikerås’s thesis is based on three studies of 914 pupils, aged eight to fifteen. She wanted to find out if the relationship between reading and mathematics changed throughout the school years.

To find answers she divided the pupils into four groups: Pupils with lower performance in both mathematics and reading, pupils with low performance in mathematics, pupils with low performance in reading and pupils with normal performance in both reading and mathematics.

Their performance was then tested through different types of mathematical problems.

The four problems analyzed in my thesis were simple tasks like 3+4=7, multiple steps tasks like 484+927=1411, text problems and mental calculation, Reikerås says. She found that the testing of the different problems yielded several interesting answers.

Difficulties with mental calculation
I discovered that the level of reading abilities did not influence the performance in mathematics, neither for pupils with normal math performance nor for pupils with low math performance. Furthermore, reading abilities had little relation to the development of the multiple steps problems. Even if the pupils had to read in order to solve the problems, the math abilities were more important than the reading abilities.

The last form of problem solving showed another tendency than the others which were paper-and-pencil tasks. In mental calculation reading abilities were of crucial importance for their performance in problem solving,

Here the level of reading performance was actually more important than the level of mathematics ability. For the pupils with poor reading performance these problems were difficult, Reikerås stated.

Visual support is important
Mental calculation was the only task given orally. The pupils got no visual support, neither pencil nor picture or problem to read, Reikreås explains.

Visual support is crucial for the pupils with reading disability. We can see this because poor readers often write down the whole problem, while good readers only write down the answer. A pencil for writing down the problem is in other words of great help for poor readers who struggle with the sound picture, she says and concludes:

My findings indicate that mathematics and reading are different processes. Those who struggle to produce words, need not struggle with numbers and calculation, Half of all poor readers do well in mathematics only if they can compensate for their weak phonological memory through visual support.

Text: Silje Stangeland
Photo: Elisabeth Tønnessen