1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,880 Hello and welcome back to the What in the World is Dyscalculia podcast. 2 00:00:06,880 --> 00:00:13,080 I'm your host, Dr. Honora Wall, and the podcast is presented by Educalc Learning. 3 00:00:13,080 --> 00:00:19,600 Please visit us at educalclearning.com for more information about Dyscalculia and to 4 00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:24,480 let us know what kind of topics you'd like to hear on future podcasts. 5 00:00:24,480 --> 00:00:29,640 In today's episode, I wanted to talk about research. 6 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:35,680 I'm going to start a series covering the published research about Dyscalculia. 7 00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:39,560 And the first thing I will say is that we desperately need more. 8 00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:47,680 If you happen to be a researcher or if you're thinking about pursuing your terminal degree 9 00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:54,280 and you want to find something fascinating to do a qualitative or even better quantitative 10 00:00:54,280 --> 00:00:59,600 study on, I encourage you to look into Dyscalculia because we need to know more. 11 00:00:59,600 --> 00:01:09,000 Currently, the amount of scientific published peer-reviewed research on Dyscalculia is about 12 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:14,160 10% the amount that's published on dyslexia. 13 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:22,480 And there's even less that focuses specifically on dysgraphia, dyspraxia, and how these neurodivergent 14 00:01:22,480 --> 00:01:29,000 issues impact student experience and learning. 15 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:32,880 So the information that we do have is very interesting. 16 00:01:32,880 --> 00:01:36,640 If you enjoy reading research, it's good stuff to read. 17 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:38,880 So I encourage you to look into that more. 18 00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:43,160 And in our episodes, we'll talk about the leading researchers in the field, what they've 19 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:46,400 examined, and what they found. 20 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:53,680 I decided to use Dyscalculia as the focus area of my dissertation study because this 21 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:58,120 is such a passion of mine and I want to know more. 22 00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:04,840 So I wanted to do a study that would add to what I knew and what the larger body of people 23 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:07,280 know about Dyscalculia. 24 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:15,600 I decided to focus on a quantitative study measuring data rather than measuring experience 25 00:02:15,600 --> 00:02:20,400 and focus on a test accommodation. 26 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:27,480 There are so many accommodations that we use regularly in an IEP or just to help students 27 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:28,480 in need. 28 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:36,680 And those include extended time, having questions read to you, using a certain level of vocabulary, 29 00:02:36,680 --> 00:02:38,080 etc. 30 00:02:38,080 --> 00:02:47,640 But most of these have been examined for people with dyslexia or for people with special education 31 00:02:47,640 --> 00:02:49,000 needs in general. 32 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:51,280 And that's such a broad term. 33 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:55,840 There are so many different aspects to special education. 34 00:02:55,840 --> 00:03:00,400 That's a huge, huge field. 35 00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:07,800 So I wanted to take an accommodation and look at it through the lens of Dyscalculia. 36 00:03:07,800 --> 00:03:11,960 I chose increased blank space. 37 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:17,680 And I chose increased blank space because I wanted to know if the visual spatial issues 38 00:03:17,680 --> 00:03:25,280 that are common among people with Dyscalculia would show up as a barrier to academic performance. 39 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:31,680 Part of the test too busy, too visually stimulating and overwhelming. 40 00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:36,200 That was my initial interest. 41 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:42,680 And while using increased blank space can be discussed as an accommodation, there's not 42 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:47,240 a lot of research that's really looked at this topic. 43 00:03:47,240 --> 00:03:49,520 So there's more to learn, certainly. 44 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:54,560 And that was one of the great things about doing a research study is I was able to look 45 00:03:54,560 --> 00:04:00,520 into my initial question and come up with quite a few questions for future research 46 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:01,520 studies. 47 00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:06,000 So I have many more hypotheses I'd like to consider. 48 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:11,840 But in this one, I stuck to increased blank space. 49 00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:18,200 I decided to use a single case design for the research people in the audience. 50 00:04:18,200 --> 00:04:24,120 If you are not a research person in the audience, that means that I just looked at one student 51 00:04:24,120 --> 00:04:27,920 and examined their experience. 52 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:36,040 And a single case was very useful for my purposes, first of all, because it's a great way to 53 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:44,800 decide if an avenue is worthy of future larger research studies. 54 00:04:44,800 --> 00:04:50,720 And worthy might not be a good word, but whether it's appropriate to continue the hypotheses 55 00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:53,800 with a larger audience. 56 00:04:53,800 --> 00:05:01,040 A single case design was also good for dyscalculia because dyscalculia affects somewhere around 57 00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:04,320 10% of the population. 58 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:08,240 And if you're looking at a small school, this is a very small number of students. 59 00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:16,120 And my site was a school designed specifically for people who have specific learning disorders, 60 00:05:16,120 --> 00:05:19,360 high functioning autism, and ADHD. 61 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:24,160 And even then, it was a small population of students. 62 00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:31,040 So doing quantitative research without enough people in the study means that you don't have 63 00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:34,360 a lot of power behind your results. 64 00:05:34,360 --> 00:05:41,640 So focusing on a single case design gave the study more power, more meaning to the results, 65 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:47,480 because the other variables were limited. 66 00:05:47,480 --> 00:05:54,440 My participant in the study was a fifth grade student diagnosed with dyscalculia, and I 67 00:05:54,440 --> 00:05:59,600 took the standard math program the school was using. 68 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:07,360 And with the publisher's permission, I had the student take some of the math test straight 69 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:12,160 out of the book, same as everyone else in the class was. 70 00:06:12,160 --> 00:06:19,440 And then we had an intervention phase where I would take the test from the textbook and 71 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:27,640 just make a photocopy and split up the questions so that each page had 50% increased blank space. 72 00:06:27,640 --> 00:06:31,440 I will cut to the chase of the findings. 73 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:39,720 If you want to know more about the study itself, please email me, Honora, H-O-N-O-R-A, 74 00:06:39,720 --> 00:06:46,960 at educalclearning.com, and I'll be happy to email you a PDF of the study, and you can 75 00:06:46,960 --> 00:06:49,880 see it in its entirety. 76 00:06:49,880 --> 00:07:00,240 So what I found was that in this very limited case and in this specific situation, only 77 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:09,200 increasing blank space did not statistically change the student's academic performance. 78 00:07:09,200 --> 00:07:12,000 They didn't really do a whole lot better. 79 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:16,280 They certainly didn't do any worse, but there wasn't a big change from just having that 80 00:07:16,280 --> 00:07:17,280 extra space. 81 00:07:17,280 --> 00:07:24,280 Now, I do think part of that result came from the fact that we did not do an intervention 82 00:07:24,280 --> 00:07:28,360 phase where we taught the student how to use that space. 83 00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:31,560 I was not the classroom teacher. 84 00:07:31,560 --> 00:07:37,040 I was distanced from the student in that respect and simply analyzed the data that the classroom 85 00:07:37,040 --> 00:07:45,120 teacher gathered, but we did not design a period of instruction showing the student how 86 00:07:45,120 --> 00:07:52,160 to use increased space, showing them how to write out their work, and having them practice 87 00:07:52,160 --> 00:07:56,960 that skill before they use the accommodation of increased space. 88 00:07:56,960 --> 00:08:01,040 I do think that could make a difference. 89 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:06,200 The student in this study did not write a thing in that increased blank space. 90 00:08:06,200 --> 00:08:09,800 So it was not utilized by the student. 91 00:08:09,800 --> 00:08:18,760 And I think that was an indicator for a future intervention method if we spend time instructing 92 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:24,600 students on how to use that increased space, making them use it, practicing, reviewing 93 00:08:24,600 --> 00:08:29,920 their practice, and focusing on that skill, would that then be beneficial? 94 00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:34,400 I think that's a great future question. 95 00:08:34,400 --> 00:08:41,320 I also analyzed the types of math topics and questions within the test. 96 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:50,240 And there was not a significant difference in performance based on how many word problems 97 00:08:50,240 --> 00:08:52,760 were on any of the tests. 98 00:08:52,760 --> 00:09:02,400 And there was not a significant difference based on the number of test questions. 99 00:09:02,400 --> 00:09:04,760 But they all did have about the same number of questions. 100 00:09:04,760 --> 00:09:10,320 So there was not a test that had longer length or a much shorter length. 101 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:13,960 They were all pretty close together. 102 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:20,960 One thing that did affect student performance was the number of questions that focused on 103 00:09:20,960 --> 00:09:30,960 division, rather than multiplication, word problems, or a mixed review sort of question. 104 00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:38,320 There was a definite drop in academic performance on the test that had a division focus. 105 00:09:38,320 --> 00:09:43,600 So that's another future research question that I would like to address. 106 00:09:43,600 --> 00:09:48,840 And I think it'd be great if more people looked at this, the inherent difficulties in the 107 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:56,840 backward parts of math, subtraction, division, roots, factoring. 108 00:09:56,840 --> 00:10:01,120 So many of our math topics have a forward component and a backward component. 109 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:05,960 And in my personal experience, I have found that students with dyscalculia, even once 110 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:14,600 they've mastered the forward math, adding, multiplying, exponents, they always struggle 111 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:20,880 more with the backward component, subtraction, division, roots, et cetera. 112 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:25,300 And I think that could be a great thing to explore further. 113 00:10:25,300 --> 00:10:26,800 What is it about that? 114 00:10:26,800 --> 00:10:31,320 The backward piece that's causing so much difficulty. 115 00:10:31,320 --> 00:10:37,160 And is it as specific to dyscalculia as I think it is? 116 00:10:37,160 --> 00:10:42,440 Meaning that someone who has low numeracy, a weak math foundation, some other reason 117 00:10:42,440 --> 00:10:50,760 for low performance, are they able to master both directions differently? 118 00:10:50,760 --> 00:10:56,240 So that was the first statistically interesting difference. 119 00:10:56,240 --> 00:11:01,240 There was a statistically significant difference. 120 00:11:01,240 --> 00:11:05,280 In one very interesting area I was not expecting. 121 00:11:05,280 --> 00:11:10,600 The long story short is there was one test where the student was very agitated that day, 122 00:11:10,600 --> 00:11:17,640 very upset, did not want to take a math test and was showing a lot of signs of frustration. 123 00:11:17,640 --> 00:11:23,520 So the teaching assistant took the child aside, put him in a separate seating area, just helped 124 00:11:23,520 --> 00:11:30,280 him calm down, talked about something else, let him relax, and then prepped him for the 125 00:11:30,280 --> 00:11:34,080 test by saying, you know, why don't we just get this out of the way? 126 00:11:34,080 --> 00:11:37,000 You can take your test in here and that'll be fine. 127 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:38,000 It'll be fine. 128 00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:40,400 You'll be done pretty soon. 129 00:11:40,400 --> 00:11:46,240 And on that test, the academic performance doubled, literally doubled. 130 00:11:46,240 --> 00:11:55,480 I was completely shocked at this result because we had not designed this as an event. 131 00:11:55,480 --> 00:12:02,000 Certainly we did not wait for the student to become upset one day and then do this intervention. 132 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:07,960 We had not looked at social-emotional impact as part of this particular study, but certainly 133 00:12:07,960 --> 00:12:13,520 after seeing this result, I'll be doing that in the future. 134 00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:20,760 It does seem that having the space to calm down and having someone help the student regulate 135 00:12:20,760 --> 00:12:25,680 their emotions had a massive impact on their academic performance. 136 00:12:25,680 --> 00:12:34,640 Now, this test had roughly the same number of questions, roughly the same type of content, 137 00:12:34,640 --> 00:12:40,800 so there was nothing else that would lead to the surprising increase in performance. 138 00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:45,640 The only difference was that emotional piece. 139 00:12:45,640 --> 00:12:51,800 So I'll definitely be looking at that in the future as something that can help our students 140 00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:55,480 in a measurable, identifiable way. 141 00:12:55,480 --> 00:13:01,640 The way we speak to people, the emotional state we put them in before they take an assessment, 142 00:13:01,640 --> 00:13:06,560 can truly impact their performance in a way we can measure and certainly in a way that 143 00:13:06,560 --> 00:13:08,280 we are looking for. 144 00:13:08,280 --> 00:13:15,640 My educators in the audience, could you imagine if every student in your class suddenly doubled 145 00:13:15,640 --> 00:13:18,720 their academic performance on tests? 146 00:13:18,720 --> 00:13:20,880 That would be huge. 147 00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:24,360 So that's one of the great things about research. 148 00:13:24,360 --> 00:13:30,200 First of all, we can take a question and examine it and see what the results are. 149 00:13:30,200 --> 00:13:37,960 In this case, I could not say that simply increasing blank space had a measurable impact 150 00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:42,520 in any direction on student academic performance. 151 00:13:42,520 --> 00:13:48,320 But the other great thing about research is that it leads to the next question. 152 00:13:48,320 --> 00:13:55,560 Could an intervention of training students to use increased blank space properly, could 153 00:13:55,560 --> 00:13:59,720 that have a measurable difference? 154 00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:06,280 Helping students regulate their emotions before they take an assessment. 155 00:14:06,280 --> 00:14:11,480 Could that have a measurable difference on performance? 156 00:14:11,480 --> 00:14:18,640 Examining the inherent difficulties to certain types of math and seeing whether or not they 157 00:14:18,640 --> 00:14:26,040 impact students with dyscalculia in a greater way than students who do not have this specific 158 00:14:26,040 --> 00:14:27,540 learning disorder. 159 00:14:27,540 --> 00:14:31,240 Those are all future topics I will definitely be looking into. 160 00:14:31,240 --> 00:14:34,320 If any of you are doing research, please email me. 161 00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:40,240 I would love to know what you're looking at and to read about your results. 162 00:14:40,240 --> 00:14:44,080 So that's what happened in my dissertation study. 163 00:14:44,080 --> 00:14:50,120 And again, once I have that completed, it has been defended. 164 00:14:50,120 --> 00:14:54,120 I can get that up on the website, educalclearning.com. 165 00:14:54,120 --> 00:14:58,520 And if you would like a copy now, please email me and I would be happy to share that with 166 00:14:58,520 --> 00:15:02,880 you. 167 00:15:02,880 --> 00:15:10,520 Going into research is a really great way for educators and administrators to directly 168 00:15:10,520 --> 00:15:16,760 support students in a way that we know for sure works. 169 00:15:16,760 --> 00:15:18,240 Takes a long time to do research. 170 00:15:18,240 --> 00:15:19,760 There's a lot involved. 171 00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:26,960 So using personal experience is a great way to help students right now. 172 00:15:26,960 --> 00:15:30,400 And if you're seeing anything that you know for sure is helping your students, please 173 00:15:30,400 --> 00:15:32,360 continue doing it. 174 00:15:32,360 --> 00:15:36,720 While you wait for more research to be published. 175 00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:42,000 And as a parent, this kind of research can help you understand your student better. 176 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:48,160 If you are a person who has dyscalculia, understanding what the research identifies and where the 177 00:15:48,160 --> 00:15:53,600 questions are, where the answers are, can really help you understand yourself as a learner 178 00:15:53,600 --> 00:15:58,080 as well. 179 00:15:58,080 --> 00:16:04,480 So this is the first topic we're covering in our research series. 180 00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:09,560 We won't do every single podcast episode on only research because there's a lot of personal 181 00:16:09,560 --> 00:16:13,920 experience that we need to discuss about this learning disorder. 182 00:16:13,920 --> 00:16:18,840 But I think it's important that we follow leading researchers in this field and see 183 00:16:18,840 --> 00:16:20,880 what they have to say. 184 00:16:20,880 --> 00:16:25,640 If you have something to say about what we've talked about in this podcast, please reach 185 00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:26,640 out. 186 00:16:26,640 --> 00:16:27,940 I would love to hear from you. 187 00:16:27,940 --> 00:16:35,080 You can follow Educalclearning on LinkedIn or on Facebook or reach me through our website. 188 00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:40,680 If you're interested in our Dyscalculia Specialist Certification course, you can find the link 189 00:16:40,680 --> 00:16:46,200 to that on our website as well, educalclearning.com. 190 00:16:46,200 --> 00:17:02,080 This is Dr. Honora Wall, and I thank you for listening to What in the World is Dyscalculia.