Poster #42 - Young Children’s Understanding of Ordinal, Spatial, and Alphabet Labels in a Spatial Search Task

• In Event: 3-106 - Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Section - Cognitive Processes

Integrative Statement

Children demonstrate rapid gains in conceptual understanding and language comprehension during the preschool years. Understanding temporal and spatial ordering is important for comprehending narrative sequences, keeping track of locations in space, and following directions. The literature demonstrates emerging understanding of ordinal and spatial details in supportive contexts during infancy and rapid development during the preschool years (Foster & Hund, 2012; Kirkham, Slemmer, Richardson, & Johnson, 2002; Newcombe, 2002). Recently, Miller, Marcovitch, Boseovski, and Lewkowicz (2015) documented 4- and 5-year-old children’s growing ability to understand ordinal labels (first, second, third) to search for stickers hidden in toy train cars. The goal of our study was to extend this work in three important ways: (1) to extend the age range to include 3-year-old children to specify the developmental trajectory, (2) to compare ordinal labels used by Miller et al. (first, second, third) to spatial (front, middle, back) and alphabet (A, B, C) labels for identical train cars, and (3) to include a parent-report measure of spatial and ordinal language. We hypothesized that search performance would increase with age and differ across conditions, with ordinal and spatial being more difficult than alphabet labels. Finally, we expected that search performance would be related to parent reports of child language.

One hundred seventy-nine 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children participated (75 girls, 104 boys; M = 54.55 months, SD = 9.11 months). They were recruited from area preschools/childcare centers and the community. One hundred forty-four parents completed a demographic form and language checklist to provide additional details about child language development. Children participated individually in a quiet room. They were randomly assigned to experimental condition. Children were familiarized with a toy train that included an engine, three identical cars, and a caboose; an oval track; and three tunnels that hid the identical train cars. They completed six test trials. On each trial, they heard a label for the target car (based on their condition) and tried to find the sticker hidden there after the cars had been hidden from view.

The proportion of correct searches was analyzed in an Age x Condition Analysis of Variance. As expected, children’s search performance improved significantly with age, F (2, 170) = 25.95, p < 0.001, p2 = .23, between 3 and 4 years and again between 4 and 5 years (see Figure 1). Contrary to expectations, search performance did not differ significantly depending on condition, perhaps because the alphabet condition was more difficult than we anticipated. As predicted, parent reports of child language were significantly correlated with search performance, r (142) = .26, p < .01, as were parent reports of ordinal language and spatial language even after controlling for age, r (141) = .56, p < .01. Our findings suggest that children’s ability to use spatial, ordinal, and alphabet labels to remember locations improves dramatically with age. Moreover, their understanding of ordinal and spatial labels is tightly related. These findings provide promising directions for future research and practical applications aimed at improving young children’s spatial and temporal understanding.

Authors

• Alycia Hund, Illinois State University
  Presenting Author

• Cody Heap, Illinois State University
  Non-Presenting Author