Effects of phonological awareness and naming speed on mathematics skills in children with mild intellectual disabilities

Abstract

Objective: Both phonological awareness (PA) and naming speed have been identified as two skills related to the development of mathematics skills for children with and without learning disabilities. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationships between PA and colour naming speed for 265 elementary school students with mild intellectual disabilities (MID).

Methods: Participants were assessed using the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processes and the KeyMath Revised Diagnostic Inventory of Essential Mathematics.

Results: Hierarchical regression analyses accounting for the effects of age indicated that children with MID rely on both PA and naming speed when solving mathematics problems, although PA was the more robust indicator of the two.

Conclusion: As a whole, these results suggest that children with intellectual disabilities evidence the same types of reading and math relationships as shown for other populations of children.

• Mathematics achievement
• mild intellectual disabilities
• naming speed
• phonological awareness

Acknowledgments

We thank our participants, their families, and the schools for their cooperation and support.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

This research was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Education/Institute for Education Sciences Grant H324K040007 to Georgia State University.