While many people have difficulty understanding math, a new study is suggesting that language could be a major factor in the problem.

Researchers from the University of Chicago studied deaf people from Nicaragua and split them into two categories - those who learned formal sign language and those who had not. The study found that the deaf subjects who had not learned formal sign language were less likely to comprehend the values of numbers, because they had not learned the specific language that contained symbols for counting.

"It's not just the vocabulary words that matter, but understanding the relationships that underlie the words - the fact that 'eight' is one more than 'seven' and one less than 'nine.' Without having a set of number words to guide them, deaf homesigners in the study failed to understand that numbers build on each other in value," said Susan Goldin-Meadow, the Bearsdley Ruml Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology at the University.

As a result of this study, it's important for educators to teach children words associated with numerical concepts, as it could help lead to a better understanding of the subject.

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