Reading’s Connection To Math.

I just found an article that I found quite interesting. It was published by the University of Buffalo and looked at reading, writing, and arithmetic.  I love it because I will have an explanation to all the students who tell me “This is math, not english.”   They discovered that the ability to read and comprehend well actually affects how we approach tasks and solve problems.

A researcher wanted to know if a student could be identified as dyslexic based on how the brain worked.  In his initial study with 28 students, half with dyslexia and half without, he was able to identify those with dyslexia about 94% of the time but he needed to do additional research to see if he could generalize it.

So he went to a math study which measured the functional connectivity based on a mental math task.  Functional connectivity describes how the brain is wired every moment and changes according to the task being done. The wiring of the brain changes based on what you are looking at, what you hear, and what is happening.  For instance, you read a sign but as you move a bit to catch the end of the sign, you knock something off a shelf with your elbow, so your brain rewires itself to catch the item rather than read the sign.  So as the brain rewires itself to do a different task, your functional network changes.

He then had students look at completing a language activity and a mental math activity and in the process discovered that the connectivity markers were the same. In other words, although the tasks are different, the functional networks are the same.  He could still identify those with dyslexia but he concluded that the way our brain is set for reading actually influences how the brain works when doing math.

This reinforces the idea that your ability to read affects how you problem solve and helps educators understand why children might have difficulties with both reading and math.  He also concluded that learning how to read shapes how our brain is able to do other things.  

I found this article so interesting.  I found the article here if you’d like to check it out. I realize that the sample size is quite small but it is a start.  I can now rebut the “This is math, not english” with information from this article.  Let me know what you think, I’d love to hear.  Have a great day.