Comparing two cut-off based criteria while investigating the discriminatory characteristics of a tablet-based dyscalculia screening battery for 5–9 age group

Introduction: Math skills are essential in academic, occupational, and scientific areas as well as in daily life activities. There are two existing models in screening dyscalculia: IQ-Achievement Discrepancy Model (DM), and Response to Instruction (RTI) model. In these models, two different cut-off based criteria (being 1 or 2 standard deviation below within their age groups, and being in the lower 5–10% group) are mainly used. The main purpose of this study is to compare these two different cut-off criteria, based on three sub-tests of Tablet-PC Based Dyscalculia Screening Battery (TAB-DSB) (Canonic Dot Counting-CDC, Symbolic Number Comparison-SNC and Mental Number Line-MNL). It is expected to show which criteria would yield the best discrimination in differentiating students who have dyscalculia tendency from the rest of the students in three sub-tests. Methods: The participants of the study included 316 volunteer 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year elementary school students. Results and Conclusion: The results indicated that CDC, SNC, and MNL (MNL1, MNL2) tasks failed to discriminate the groups when the standard deviation rule (below, above, and within 1 standard deviation) was taken into consideration. On the other hand, these tasks were found to be effective in discriminating the groups when the lower 10% and the upper groups were compared.