Processing Deficits and Math Performance

Making comparisons of likeness and difference is nearly impossible for the person with processing (also called perceptual) deficits, and for this reason processing deficits frequently impact not only performance in reading, but in math as well.

Mercer identified three basic problem areas in the perceptual field, namely, figure-ground differentiation, discrimination, and spatial orientation, which affect performance in mathematics.

Figure-ground problems may cause difficulties in keeping individual problems separate from each other. The learner may lose his place on a worksheet, confuse problem numbers with digits in the problem itself, or not finish the problem, etc.

Visual discrimination problems tend to cause inversions in number recognition, confusion among coins, confusion among operation symbols, confusion between the hands of the clock, and the like.

Auditory discrimination problems cause confusion in oral counting and among endings of number words, such as /fourteen/, /forty/, etc.

Spatial problems may cause reversals and affect the ability to write problems horizontally or vertically, to understand before-after concepts, to understand the importance of directionality which, in turn, could affect regrouping, and to align rows of numbers with varying digits. Additionally, the child may have problems putting decimals in the right place, using the number line, understanding positive and negative integers, etc. Also affected are the ability to tell time, to understand geometry and any other mathematical concepts which have to do with spatial and temporal orientations and relationships.