An insider’s view of a mathematics learning disability: Compensating to gain access to fractions

ABSTRACT

Research on mathematics learning disability (i.e., dyscalculia) tends to adopt a deficit model of the learner and quantify the ways in which these students are deficient. In this study we adopt a radically different approach. We understand disabilities to result from issues of access, and we explore mathematics learning disability (MLD) by leveraging the expertise of an individual with first-hand experience with this disability. Dylan (second author) has a unique perspective because, in addition to having an MLD, she also majored in statistics in college. Through videotaped interviews we documented the issues of access Dylan encountered and the ways in which she compensated to gain access. In this article we focus specifically on the topic of fractions, and identify Dylan’s issues of access with standard representations of fractions, including symbolic notation, area models, and fraction manipulatives. These issues of access mirrored the difficulties documented in other students with MLD, but were not similarly problematic for Dylan. This research provides novel insight into the difficulties experienced by students with MLD, reframes deficits in terms of issues of access, and demonstrates how an individual with an MLD may learn to compensate.

KEYWORDS:

• Compensation
• dyscalculia
• emancipatory research
• learning disability
• Vygotsky

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Grace Thompson for her assistance in coding and analyzing the data.

Notes

¹ Our use of “mediational tools” includes what Vygotsky refers to as both tools and signs.

² Dylan’s performance on single-digit addition and multiplication problems is considered slow given that Mazzocco, Devlin, and McKenney (2008) found that typically achieving eighth graders took on average 1.72 seconds to solve addition and multiplication fact problems.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by a dissertation grant from the Spencer Foundation, the National Science Foundation under grant no. ESI-0119732, and the Institute of Education Sciences under grant R305B090026. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Spencer Foundation, the National Science Foundation, or the Institute of Education Sciences.