Difficulties of mouth-breathing students in the solution of additive mathematical problems

Abstract

Twenty-six mouth-breathing students and their 42 class mates from the third stage of a lower junior school were evaluated in a solution task involving 13 additive problems. Task performance of mouth-breathing students was lower than that by class colleagues (Paired t-Test, p< 0.00). Intergroup analysis revealed that the proportion of attention mistakes by mouth-breathing students (30.13%) was higher than that of class mates (18.90%; Test for Comparison of Two Proportions, p< 0.00). Mouth-breathing students performed similar proportions of attention and interpretation mistakes (Exact Binomial Test, p< 0.25), whereas their colleagues made more interpretation than attention mistakes (p< 0.00). Attention and interpretation difficulties were the main factors that made mouth-breathing students to commit mistakes, at an average of 66% of the problems. Interpretation difficulty in addition situations was the main factor that made their class mates to commit mistakes, at an average of 43% of the problems. Since early treatment of mouth-breathing may hinder losses in development and learning, it is highly relevant that the teacher counsels the parents of mouth-breathing children to seek expert help.