Tablet Games for Early Detection and Intervention of Developmental Dyscalculia

Introduction

The ultimate goal of the project is to provide a screening and rehabilitation method for the early detection and treatment of developmental dyscalculia (DD), in the form of an entertaining, tablet-based gaming environment. DD is a common learning disability and severely impacts personal and professional development throughout the lifespan.

Importance of Early Diagnosis

Early diagnosis and interventions increase the possibilities for people with DD to live an independent and productive life. Children with DD have difficulties mapping numbers’ representation into space. In contrast, typically developing children's understanding of numerical concepts is facilitated by spatial mapping of numbers.

Project Objectives

We want to develop a tool that will use a gaming environment to evaluate and stimulate Space Number Association (SNA) in children. The objectives include:

1. Stimulating kids with game-like SNA tasks.
2. Monitoring their performance with more general mathematical skills tasks.
3. Linking the device with an online algorithm for the extraction of responses that can compute and analyze each kid’s performance over time.

Methodology

This project builds on two behavioral tasks I have established to implicitly assess SNA in children and infants. These paradigms can become a first-stage screening tool for individuals at high risk for DD.

Tool Development

We will further advance this method into a tool that allows easy, rapid, and automatic testing of space-to-number processing in young children from any cultural and educational background, and in any context. The paradigms will be embedded in a gaming environment that is optimally engaging for the young users, facilitating spontaneous participation in foundational numerical training targeted to the needs and specific numerical competencies of each child.

Validation of the Method

Moreover, we will further validate the relationship between SNA and core numerical competence development, providing initial crucial steps for empirical validation of our method as an early screening tool for DD.