Neuropsychological and educational profie of children with dyscalculia and dyslexia: A comparative study

Abstract

This paper aims to compare the neuropsychological and educational profies of Brazilian children with dyscalculia (n = 8), dyslexia (n = 13) and without learning disabilities (n = 12). The neuropsychological profie was composed of: (a) intelligence assessed by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III); (b) attention - WISC-III Coding and Symbol Search subtests; (c) executive functions - Digit Span (backward order) and WISC-III Arithmetic subtests, Pseudoword Repetition Test for Brazilian Children, Stroop Test and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test; (d) memory - WISC-III Digit Span subtest (forward order) and Rey Complex Figures. The educational profie was composed of reading, writing and mathematics, assessed by the Academic Performance Test and the Arithmetic Test. It was found that the groups with dyscalculia and dyslexia did not differentiate in any of the neuropsychological abilities, only in the reading and writing abilities. Neuropsychological variables that could explain these results were discussed.