| This study is aimed at specifying the cognitive components for addition operations (encoding, speed of executing the operation, operation selection, and strategy choice) to determine if they are responsible for the difficulties that students with learning disabilities and mild mental retardation face in the elementary school in solving simple addition problems.; The researcher selected 240 male and female pupils as a random sample from third and fifth grades from the state schools in the State of Kuwait. The sample was selected based on the characteristics of gender, type of handicap, and grade. The study employed two measurements. First, the addition operations pre-skills test. Second, the cognitive components for the addition operation test. To investigate the study hypotheses the following statistical tests were used: MANOVA and ANOVA tests followed by post hoc comparisons using Tukey's HSD, chi-square for independent samples, independent samples t-test and multiple regression.; The study results pointed out that three of the cognitive components for addition operations which are encoding, speed of executing the operation and strategy choice were responsible for the difficulties that learning disabilities and mild mental retardation students face it when solving simple addition problems in the elementary school. |
