The Influence of Behavior on Performance Within a Word-Problem Intervention for Students With Mathematics Difficulty

Abstract

Some elementary students may exhibit challenging externalizing or internalizing behaviors in addition to difficulty with mathematics. In this study, we explored the behavioral patterns of 441 third-grade students with and without mathematics difficulty (MD). Compared with students without MD, students with MD demonstrated higher rates of externalizing and internalizing behaviors. We then randomly assigned 162 third-grade students with MD to receive a 10-week word-problem intervention or to be in a business-as-usual comparison group. Within the word-problem intervention, students with MD who exhibited higher occurrences of externalizing behaviors performed significantly lower on a word-problem measure than students without as many occurrences of externalizing behaviors. Response to the word-problem intervention did not differ based on internalizing behavior patterns.