Cross-Domain Connections in Preschool Spatial & STEM Skills

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: PS 14 Topic - Cognitive Processes

Abstract

Along with allowing children to navigate their surroundings and interact with objects, early spatial ability is a predictor of mathematical achievement and has implications for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) learning (Mix et al., 2016; Newcombe & Frick, 2010). Considering the central role that technology plays in today’s society; it is important to determine how proficiency varies across spatial and STEM skills in order to better understand their underlying relationship. Spatial language can bolster spatial skills (Casasola et al., 2020) and there are positive correlations between STEM skills and fine motor skills (Carlson et al., 2013). However, these studies examine the relation of spatial and STEM skills with one other domain of development, rather than placing them in a comprehensive, cross-domain context. There is also a lack of research on the relations among these skills during early childhood (Newcombe & Frick, 2010). To address these questions, mental rotation, pattern extension ability, fine motor skills, and spatial vocabulary were assessed in 67 preschool children (M = 4.99 years, SD = 0.51 years, 38 girls).

Mental rotation is the ability to recognize an object from multiple visual angles and is correlated with kindergarten mathematical performance (Mix et al., 2016). It was measured here using a modified version of the Picture Rotation Task, in which children selected which of three rotated options matched a target image across 12 items (Quaiser-Pohl, 2003). Pattern extension, the STEM skill of interest in the current study, is a key aspect of pre-algebraic thinking (Papic et al., 2011). Children extended six patterns that differed by their main theme (shape, color, shading, orientation, size, design) by selecting the three items that came next. Fine motor ability was determined through a modified version of the Beery Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (DTVMI), and children’s knowledge of shape and spatial relation words was measured in a vocabulary assessment.

Child age did not correlate with performance on the measures, perhaps because of the narrow age range in the present sample. Nor were there any differences in performance between female and male children. Children’s mental rotation scores correlated with their scores on both the DTVMI, r(64) = .28, p < .05, and the spatial vocabulary assessment, r(65) = .29, p < .05. Children’s spatial vocabulary also correlated with their DTVMI score, r(64) = .42, p < .01 and pattern extension, r(65) = .31, p < .05. Taken together, these findings outline an association among mental rotation, fine-motor skills, and the acquisition of spatial language, suggesting that children who can execute more motorically difficult movements have acquired a larger spatial vocabulary and perform better on mental rotation. Pattern extension only related to spatial language and not to the other skills assessed. The present results are the first to document the interconnectedness of motor, spatial, and spatial language skills and lay the groundwork for future experimental work about the directionality of these influences.

Authors

• Valerie Patrice Bambha, Cornell University
  Presenting Author

• Marianella Casasola, Cornell University
  Non-Presenting Author