Poster #103 - The relationship between early home learning activities and young children’s spatial reasoning

• In Event: 1-005 - Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

Young children frequently encounter spatial tasks such as play with Lego, navigating space, and map reading (Bruce & Hawes, 2015). Spatial skills are also related to success in math and the sciences (Humphreys, Lubinski, & Yao, 1993; Newcombe & Frick, 2010). Research found relations between the general quality of the home environment and children’s social and academic outcomes (Lin, McBride-Chang, Aram, & Levin, 2011; Manolitsis, Georgiou, & Parrila, 2011; Melhuish, Phan, Sylva, Sammons, Siraj-Blatchford, & Taggart, 2008). There are a few studies analyzing the relationship between early home learning activities and spatial reasoning. In this study, early home learning activities include early home literacy activities and early numeracy learning activities.

Previous research has shown that the relationship between children’s mathematical skills and their spatial abilities (Casey, Nuttall, Pezaris, & Benbow, 1995; Nath & Szücs, 2014; Tolar, Lederberg, & Fletcher, 2009) and the influence of sex differences on spatial abilities (Ehrlich, Levine, & Goldin-Meadow, 2006). In addition, Mothers’ education is associated with home learning activities (Baker, Serpell, & Sonnenschein, 1995). The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between early home learning activities and young children’s spatial reasoning in controlling young children’s age, gender, mother’s education and children’s related abilities (number skills and vocabulary ability).

One hundred and twenty eight 5-7 years old children (average age = 6.47) and their parents participated in the study. Their parents completed an early home learning experiences questionnaire (PIRLS, 2016). The items of early home literacy activities were reading books, telling stories, singing songs, playing with alphabet toys, talking about things done, talking about things read, playing word games, writing letters or words, and reading aloud signs and labels. Early numeracy learning activities included say counting rhymes, play with number toys, count different things, play games involving shapes, play with building blocks, and play board or card games. Young children completed the assessments: (a) vocabulary test (the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)), (b) spatial reasoning (Raven’s coloured Progressive Matrices), and (c) number skills (number comparison task). The entire assessment length ranged from 40 to 50 min.

Results revealed there was no sex difference in spatial reasoning. Some items of early home learning activities were significant related (table 1). Stepwise multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between early home learning activities and young children’s spatial reasoning (table 2). Predictor variables were entered in a similar order for each regression: control variables (age and mother’s education) in Step 1, young children’s related abilities (number skills and vocabulary ability) in Step 2, and home learning experiences in Steps 3 and 4. Young children’s age, vocabulary ability, and play games involving shapes with parents were found to contribute to young children’s spatial reasoning.

Author

• Chia-Hui Chiu, National Tsing Hua University
  Presenting Author