(2199) SUPPORTING THE NUMERICAL DEVELOPMENT OF CP CHILDREN WITH DELAYED LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: A PILOT STUDY AMONGST GRADE 4, CP LEARNERS IN SOUTH AFRICA

摘要

A large number of learners with cerebral palsy (CP) have delayed language development, resultingnot only in literacy problems, but they also experience numerous problems with the development ofbasic numerical skills. Some researchers postulate that 46% of children with CP have at least onespecific learning difficulty and that CP children are more likely to experience learning difficulties in thearea of mathematics. Research findings suggest that in the case of CP children, learning problemshave been associated with deficits in both the visuospatial sketchpad of working memory andproblems related to the 'incomplete' phonological loop. This is further complicated by challengesrelated to vision, hearing and speech abilities. Consequently, the repetition store in the workingmemory does not recognise the corresponding symbol/number and sound. Against this background,the present study was both exploratory and experimental by nature. First, the researchers set out todetermine the performance levels of Grade 4, CP children sampled for the present investigation (n =20). This included administering their non-verbal intellectual potential (RAVENS), as well asstandardised measures to determine their level of maths proficiency. Secondly, the researchersimplemented intervention therapy techniques, entailing multi-sensory coding, to determine whetherGrade 4, CP learners with mathematics delays can improve their mathematics performancessignificantly (following a six-month invention programme that specifically addressed number concept,arithmetic facts and basic mathematical operations). The core purpose of this intervention therapytechnique is to support the fundamental problem of CP children, namely the 'incomplete' phonologicalloop in the working memory of learners to enable them to recognise letters, numerical symbols andfigures and retain them in the memory. After six months of intervention therapy, the post-test resultsshowed a significant improvement for CP children in the experimental group. These results confirm thepossible benefits of considering multi-sensory intervention therapy for CP children with delayedlanguage development.