A pretest-training-posttest design assessed whether training to improve spatial skills also improved mathematics performance in elementary-aged children. First grade students (mean age = 7 years, n = 134) and sixth grade students (mean age = 12 years, n = 124) completed training in 1 of 2 spatial skills--spatial visualization or form…

Humans perceptually extract quantity information from our environments, be it from simple stimuli in isolation, or from relational magnitudes formed by taking ratios of pairs of simple stimuli. Some have proposed that these two types of magnitude are processed by a common system, whereas others have proposed separate systems. To test these…

A pretest-training-posttest design assessed whether training to improve spatial skills also improved mathematics performance in elementary-aged children. First grade students (mean age = 7 years, n = 134) and sixth grade students (mean age = 12 years, n = 124) completed training in 1 of 2 spatial skills-spatial visualization or form…

Very little is known about children's discussion of mathematics topics during unstructured play. Ginsburg, Lin, Ness, and Seo [2003. Young American and Chinese children's everyday mathematical activity. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 5(4), 235-258. Retrieved from…

The relations among various spatial and mathematics skills were assessed in a cross-sectional study of 854 children from kindergarten, third, and sixth grades (i.e., 5 to 13 years of age). Children completed a battery of spatial mathematics tests and their scores were submitted to exploratory factor analyses both within and across domains. In the…

In a recent study, Gevers and colleagues (2010, "Journal of Experimental Psychology: General," Vol. 139, pp. 180-190) showed that the SNARC (spatial numerical association of response codes) effect in adults results not only from spatial coding of magnitude (e.g., mental number line hypothesis) but also from verbal coding. Because children are…

Williams syndrome (WS) is a developmental disorder characterized by relatively spared verbal skills and severe visuospatial deficits. Serious impairments in mathematics have also been reported. This article reviews the evidence on mathematical ability in WS, focusing on the integrity and developmental path of two fundamental representations,…

Although geometry and spatial reasoning are important as a way to interpret and reflect on the physical environment and also form the foundation for learning mathematics and other subjects, many early childhood and primary school teachers spend little time instructing their students in these areas. This paper examines how young children learn…