Mental arithmetic performance of adults with and without Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD): the role of working memory and maths anxiety

Previous studies have shown that children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have poorer maths performance compared to neurotypicals (NT). Children with DCD have impaired performance in subitising, nonsymbolic and symbolic number comparison tasks, position-to-number tasks, and arithmetic number tasks compared to NTs (Gomez et al., 2015; Pieters et al., 2012; VaivreDouret et al., 2011). However, studies into adult DCD maths performance are lacking. Hence, this study investigated the role of working memory (WM), maths anxiety (MAS), and maths self-efficacy on the DCD mental arithmetic performance. Forty-three individuals participated in this betweensubjects study, in a laboratory environment. Adults with DCD exhibited lower working memory (WM) and mathematics performance and were more mathematically anxious than their NT peers. WM resources had a positive association with the DCD mathematics performance of individuals with DCD. They might have relied more on WM resources and lacked automaticity with the simple mental arithmetic tasks than NTs. Conversely, MAS had an inverse relationship with NT maths. Our research has highlighted crucial cognitive and emotional factors contributing to inadequate mathematics performance among adults with DCD. We have established a starting point for future experimental studies. Our objective is to better comprehend the difficulties that adults with DCD face in maths. Relevance Given the significant impact of mathematical fluency on academic achievement and employment status, more research is needed to inform future interventions for adults with DCD to help navigate this everyday skill, which is essential in adulthood.