Helping children with low math and work memory performances: A glimmer of hope for computerised interventions

Approximately 5% - 6% of Singaporean students were enrolled into a learning support programme for math (LSM) on entry to primary school. Although LSM provided additional educational support to children during their first two years of formal schooling, a sizable proportion of children still performed at levels lower than their normally achieving peers even at the end of LSM. Previous efforts to assist these children using a working memory intervention resulted in an improvement in aspects of their working memory but without accompanying math improvement. In this talk, I will present results from a second iteration of that effort in which 215 children from LSM were provided with computerised training that targeted working memory, numeracy, or working memory in a numeric context. Evaluation of growth curves across four timepoints showed no working memory improvement relative to active control. However, performances on the number line, numeric discrimination, and math fluency tasks exhibited more rapid growth both immediately and six months post-training in the numeracy and numeric working memory conditions. Merits of WM versus numeracy focused intervention will be discussed. Copyright © 2021 Loughborough University.