Three-year-olds’ spatial language comprehension and links with mathematics and spatial performance.

Abstract

Early spatial skills predict the development of later spatial and mathematical skills. Yet, it is unclear how comprehension of the words that capture spatial relations, words like behind and under, might be associated with children’s early spatial and mathematics skills. The current study addressed this question by conducting a moderated mediation model to test the potential moderating effects of group factors, such as socioeconomic status (SES) and gender, on the possible mediation of spatial language comprehension on the association between spatial skill and mathematics performance. In total, 192 3-year-olds were tested on a battery of assessments, including a novel Spatial Language Comprehension Task, a test of spatial skills (2- and 3-dimensional trials of the Test of Spatial Assembly [2D and 3D TOSA, respectively]), and a composite of 2 mathematical assessments. The results indicate that this novel Spatial Language Comprehension Task is a reliable measure useful for examining group differences and the early space–math link. Specifically, higher-SES preschoolers and females had higher spatial language comprehension compared with their lower-SES peers and males, respectively. These SES and gender disparities in spatial language comprehension are concerning, given the strong association between spatial language comprehension and mathematics skills. Additionally, spatial language comprehension mediated the association between spatial skill and mathematics performance for females only. Future work should examine the potential causal role that spatial language comprehension may have in concurrent and later spatial and mathematics skills.

Early spatial language development and education: a scoping review

“…Spatial language is the language of spatial concepts and relationships, usually consisting of words and phrases used to describe the spatial relationship between objects and attributes (Bower et al 2020). Different languages have their linguistic systems to encode spatial information to express spatial concepts and spatial relationships (Bower et al 2020;Bowerman and Choi 2003).…”

“…Spatial language is the language of spatial concepts and relationships, usually consisting of words and phrases used to describe the spatial relationship between objects and attributes (Bower et al 2020). Different languages have their linguistic systems to encode spatial information to express spatial concepts and spatial relationships (Bower et al 2020;Bowerman and Choi 2003). Bowerman (1996) proposed the 'spatial semantic categories' that could be used in human cognition to distinguish the motion or location of objects in space, thereby meeting the need for communications.…”

“…Early language has laid a solid foundation for early cognitive development, especially those about space and spatial relationships (Bower et al 2020). For example, an increasing volume of research shows that spatial cognition is affected by early spatial language (Bohnemeyer 2020), providing evidence to support the Whorf hypothesis that language features would shape its speakers' world view or cognition as it provides symbol systems to represent the world (Hussein 2012).…”

“…For example, an increasing volume of research shows that spatial cognition is affected by early spatial language (Bohnemeyer 2020), providing evidence to support the Whorf hypothesis that language features would shape its speakers' world view or cognition as it provides symbol systems to represent the world (Hussein 2012). This hypothesis has inspired decades of exploring the complicated and dynamic relationships between language and thoughts concerning early spatial cognition (Bower et al 2020). Thus, it is critical to conduct a synthesis or scoping review to understand what has been explored and reported about the topic.…”

Brief Interventions Influence the Quantity and Quality of Caregiver-Child Conversations in an Everyday Context

“…There is growing evidence that children from lower-income families lag behind their peers from mid-and high-socioeconomic status (SES) families in terms of mathematical knowledge and that there is wide variability in the amount of caregiver-child math talk in their informal learning environments (Starkey et al, 2004;Ramani et al, 2015;Son and Hur, 2020). Similar differences are also found in the domain of color and shape talk, where lower-income families use significantly fewer spatial words during conversations compared to their higher-income peers (Bower et al, 2020;Verdine et al, 2014b). However, several studies have demonstrated that brief interventions can improve conversations between caregivers and children from lower-income families, particularly within informal learning environments such as grocery stores, libraries, bus stops, or at home (Starkey and Klein, 2000;Siegler and Ramani, 2008;Ridge et al, 2015;Hassinger-Das et al, 2020b).…”