ABSTRACT
In the normal school-age population, about 3 to 6% of children are diagnosed with development dyscalculia (Kosc, 1974; Shalev, Manor, & Gross-Tsur, 1993). To date, no single definition for DD has been found (Badian, 1983; Cohn, 1968; Gordon, 1992; Gross-Tsur, Manor, & Shalev, 1993, 1996; Guttmann, 1937; Hennschen, 1919; Kosc, 1974; Shalev, Auerbach, & Gross-Tsur, 1995; Shalev, Manor, Amir, Wertman-Elad, & Gross-Tsur, 1995; Shalev, Manor, Auerbach, & Gross-Tsur, 1998; Slade & Russell, 1971; Temple, 1992, 1997a; von Aster, 2000). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) and the International Classifications of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10; World Health Organization, 1992) agree in their definition of disorders of arithmetic skills, requiring that an individual’s arithmetical abilities are substantially age-derived norms, intelligence, and education. But neither the ICD-10 classification (“Specific disorder of arithmetic skills”) nor the DSM-IV classification (“Mathematics disorder”) defines or uses the term “developmental.” Recent research so far seems to indicate that DD is a brain-based learning disorder governed by genetic influences and occurring in children of normal intelligence (Kosc, 1974).
