The Relationship Between Medical Impairments and Arithmetic Development in Children With Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

Arithmetic ability was tested in children with cerebral palsy without severe intellectual impairment (verbal IQ 70) attending special (n ¼ 41) or mainstream education (n ¼ 16) as well as control children in mainstream education (n ¼ 16) throughout first and second grade. Children with cerebral palsy in special education did not appear to have fully automatized arithmetic facts by the end of second grade. Their lower accuracy and consistently slower (verbal) response times raise important concerns for their future arithmetic development. Differences in arithmetic performance between children with cerebral palsy in special or mainstream education were not related to localization of cerebral palsy or to gross motor impairment. Rather, lower accuracy and slower verbal responses were related to differences in nonverbal intelligence and the presence of epilepsy. Left-hand impairment was related to slower verbal responses but not to lower accuracy.