Severe Developmental Dyscalculia Is Characterized by Core Deficits in Both Symbolic and Nonsymbolic Number Sense

Abstract

A long-standing debate concerns whether developmental dyscalculia is characterized by core deficits in processing nonsymbolic or symbolic numerical information as well as the role of domain-general difficulties. Heterogeneity in recruitment and diagnostic criteria make it difficult to disentangle this issue. Here, we selected children ( n = 58) with severely compromised mathematical skills (2 SD below average) but average domain-general skills from a large sample referred for clinical assessment of learning disabilities. From the same sample, we selected a control group of children ( n = 42) matched for IQ, age, and visuospatial memory but with average mathematical skills. Children with dyscalculia showed deficits in both symbolic and nonsymbolic number sense assessed with simple computerized tasks. Performance in the digit-comparison task and the numerosity match-to-sample task reliably separated children with developmental dyscalculia from controls in cross-validated logistic regression (area under the curve = .84). These results support a number-sense-deficit theory and highlight basic numerical abilities that could be targeted for early identification of at-risk children as well as for intervention.