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In zijn oratie gaat Hans van Luit vanuit wetenschappelijke bevindingen in op de inhoud en kenmerk... more In zijn oratie gaat Hans van Luit vanuit wetenschappelijke bevindingen in op de inhoud en kenmerken van de stoornis dyscalculie (rekenblindheid) en de neurologische achtergrond in relatie tot klinische ervaringen. Hij zal ook ruimschoots aandacht besteden aan praktische consequenties. Zo wordt onderbouwd dat methodemakers veel meer rekening moeten houden met de moeilijkheden die zwakke renenaars en kinderen met dyscalculie ervaren bij het dagelijkse rekenwerk. Verder wijst Van Luit er op dat het overheidsbeleid onvoldoende rekening houdt met de consequenties van deze stoornis. De regelgeving van de overheid is zeer terughoudend, maar het zou goed zijn vooral inspecties beter aan te sturen. Veel inspecties menen ten onrechte dat dyscalculie bijna niet voorkomt en als het al voorkomt dat dit te maken heeft met beperkte cognitieve vermogens. Uit onderzoek blijkt echter dat dyscalculie bij 2 a 3 procent van de bevolking voorkomt en niet verklaard kan worden door een verstandelijke beperking. Een andere belangrijke constatering is dat veel orthopedagogen en psychologen te weinig kennis van zaken hebben om adequaat onderzoek naar dyscalculie te kunnen doen en daarom niet in staat zijn een dyscalculieverklaring op te stellen die recht doet aan de onderwijsbehoefte van het individuele kind. Kwaliteit van diagnostisch onderzoek moet gewaarborgd zijn. We pleiten daarom voor intensivering van adequate na- en bijscholing. Vanwege het zeer specialistische karakter is de totstandkoming van een bestand van erkende, goed opgeleide, diagnostici onontbeerlijk. Verder pleit Van Luit ten behoeve van kinderen met een dyscalculieverklaring voor vrijstelling van de verplichte rekentoets, waar middelbare scholieren binnenkort als onderdeel van het eindexamen aan moeten voldoen.

Revista de psicología y educación, 2015

Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, Feb 1, 2007

Previous research into working memory of individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) has esta... more Previous research into working memory of individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) has established clear deficits. The current study examined working memory in children with mild ID (IQ 55-85) within the framework of the Baddeley model, fractionating working memory into a central executive and two slave systems, the phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad. Working memory was investigated in three groups: 50 children with mild ID (mean age 15 years 3 months), 25 chronological age-matched control children (mean age 15 years 3 months) and 25 mental age-matched control children (mean age 10 years 10 months). The groups were given multiple assessments of the phonological-loop and central-executive components. The results showed that the children with mild ID had an intact automatic rehearsal, but performed poorly on phonological-loop capacity and central-executive tests when compared with children matched for chronological age, while there were only minimal differences relative to the performance of the children matched for mental age. This overall pattern of results is consistent with a developmental delay account of mild ID. The finding of a phonological-loop capacity deficit has important implications for the remedial training of children with mild ID.

Interactive Learning Environments, May 6, 2022

Swets & Zeitlinger eBooks, 1999

British Journal of Psychology, Mar 29, 2022

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which... more This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Frontline learning research, Aug 20, 2015

The diversity of students' achievement levels within classrooms has made it essential for teacher... more The diversity of students' achievement levels within classrooms has made it essential for teachers to adapt their lessons to the varying educational needs of their students ('differentiation'). However, the term differentiation has been interpreted in diverse ways and there is a need to specify what effective differentiation entails. Previous reports of low to moderate application of differentiation underscore the importance of practical guidelines for implementing differentiation. In two studies, we investigated how teachers should differentiate according to experts, as well as the degree to which teachers already apply the recommended strategies. Study 1 employed the Delphi technique and focus group discussions to achieve consensus among eleven mathematics experts regarding a feasible model for differentiation in primary mathematics. The experts agreed on a fivestep cycle of differentiation: (1) identification of educational needs, (2) differentiated goals, (3) differentiated instruction, (4) differentiated practice, and (5) evaluation of progress and process. For each step, strategies were specified. In Study 2, the Differentiation Self-Assessment Questionnaire (DSAQ) was developed to investigate how teachers self-assess their use of the strategies recommended by the experts. While teachers (N = 268) were moderately positive about their application of the strategies overall, we also identified areas of relatively low usage (including differentiation for high-achieving students) which require attention in teacher professional development. Together, these two studies provide a model and strategies for differentiation in primary mathematics based on expert consensus, the DSAQ which can be employed in future studies, and insights into teachers' self-assessed application of specific aspects of differentiation.

Frontiers in Psychiatry, Jun 9, 2022

The current study investigated whether lower sensory and sensorimotor gating were related to high... more The current study investigated whether lower sensory and sensorimotor gating were related to higher levels of creativity and/or attentional difficulties in a natural population of primary school children (9-to 13-year-old). Gating abilities were measured with P50 suppression and prepulse inhibition of the startle reflex (PPI). The final sample included 65 participants in the P50 analyses and 37 participants in the PPI analyses. Our results showed that children with a high P50 amplitude to testing stimuli scored significantly higher on the divergent outcome measures of fluency and flexibility but not originality compared to children with a lower amplitude. No significant differences were found on any of the creativity measures when the sample was split on average PPI parameters. No significant differences in attention, as measured with a parent questionnaire, were found between children with low or high levels of sensory or sensorimotor gating. The data suggest that quantitative, but not qualitative measures of divergent thinking benefit from lower psychophysiological gating and that attentional difficulties stem from specific instead of general gating deficits. Future studies should take the effect of controlled attention into consideration.

Bohn Stafleu van Loghum eBooks, 2010

Springer eBooks, 2019

This chapter aims at describing dyscalculia, based on definitions from the WHO and DSM, and how b... more This chapter aims at describing dyscalculia, based on definitions from the WHO and DSM, and how behavioral experts can examine whether a low-performing student in math has dyscalculia or not. Based on a protocol for dyscalculia, three criteria, which must be met in order to diagnose dyscalculia, will be described. Five steps of conducting process research will be described in terms of the learnability of students. Because prevention is more promising than remediation, early education will be highlighted as an important moment to start helping young children in mastering math prerequisites, so they can start grade 1 without any big delay.

Educational Studies in Mathematics, Jun 29, 2017

Children who experience difficulties with learning mathematics should be taught by teachers who f... more Children who experience difficulties with learning mathematics should be taught by teachers who focus on the child's best way of learning. Analyses of the mathematical difficulties are necessary for fine-tuning mathematics education to the needs of these children. For this reason, an instrument for Observing and Analyzing children's Mathematical Development (OAMD), based on action theory, has been developed. The use of levels of action is a new insight in the diagnostic process. Using the OAMD makes it possible to explore and analyze a child's knowledge, proficiency and possible difficulties on four levels of acting in the domain of Number (counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). The research concerns children from kindergarten up to grade three. In this article, we will discuss the purpose and the construction of the instrument with the focus on the usability of the OAMD. The study examines the quality and the diagnostic value of the instrument by means of the internal consistency, the test-retest reliability and the construct validity. The analyses show positive results. The conclusion of the research is that the OAMD is a suitable instrument for the analysis of numerical development of young children and their possible difficulties in this domain.

Journal of Intelligence, Jun 2, 2020

The goal of the current study was to investigate the role of executive functions in mathematical ... more The goal of the current study was to investigate the role of executive functions in mathematical creativity. The sample included 278 primary school children (ages 8-13). Two models were compared: the starting model tested whether executive functions (shifting, updating, and inhibition), domain-general creativity, and mathematical ability directly predicted mathematical creativity. The second model, which fitted the data best, included the additional assumption that updating influences mathematical creativity indirectly through mathematical ability and domain-general creativity. Updating was positively related to mathematical creativity. Additionally, updating was positively related to mathematical ability and domain-general creativity. Inhibition, shifting, domain-general creativity and mathematical ability did not have a significant contribution to either model but did positively correlate with mathematical creativity. This study reports the first empirical evidence that updating is a predictor of mathematical creativity in primary school children and demonstrates that creativity is a higher order cognitive process, activating a variety of cognitive abilities.