The Study of Mathematical Problem Solving of Children with Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder

[[abstract]]The Study of Mathematical Problem Solving of Children with Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder Tzu-Chin Wang Abstracts The main purpose of this study was to explore the influence of irrelevant information on mathematical problem solving of children with attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder. Thirty 3rd-graded children with ADHD and the performance of math and reading comprehension participated in this study. Two studies were conducted to reach the purpose. The first one investigated the influence on the performance of mathematical problem with/ without irrelevant information of subjects. Following the findings of the first study, the second one was to compare the influence of numerical and verbal irrelevant information. The findings were as follows: 1. Although the ADHD children were equal to control children in the percentage-correct of problems with essential information, but they performed significantly poor when problems included irrelevant information. 2.Both ADHD and control-group children performed significantly poor in the problems with irrelevant information than those without. 3.ADHD children performed significantly poor when problems with numerical irrelevant information than those with verbal one. ADHD children were more disturbed when the irrelevant information was numerical than when it was verbal. 4.Analyzing the pattern of errors, both groups children errors were classified into five patterns: error of computation, arithmetic errors, error of miscopy, using two equations, and using wrong numbers( the first two numbers). Implications for the practice and the further research are recommended on the basis of the findings of this study. Keywords: ADHD, irrelevant information, extraneous information, mathematical word problem solving, problem-solving, elementary school student