Kindergarteners’ spatial skills and their reading and math achievement in second grade

Abstract

Children's early cognitive skills are believed to be associated with their later academic achievement and even lifelong success. Among various cognitive skills, spatial skills are considered a strong predictor of children's future math and reading performance. This study examined the relations between Chinese kindergarteners’ spatial skills and their subsequent math and reading achievement in second grade. Spatial skills (spatial perception, spatial visualization, and mental rotation), vocabulary, working memory, self-regulation ability, and academic competencies of 182 Chinese children were assessed in their last year of kindergarten. Follow up tests were then conducted on the children's academic competencies in math and reading in second grade. After controlling for demographics and a range of early domain-general and academic skill variables in a multilevel model, the unique associations between the children's early spatial skills and their academic achievement in second grade were assessed. The results showed that the children's spatial visualization ability in kindergarten was positively related to their math and reading performance in second grade. The children's spatial perception ability was also positively associated with their math performance in second grade. No association was found between early mental rotation and academic performance in second grade. Overall, the findings suggest that early spatial skills may have long-term effects on children's academic achievement in primary school. The effects need to be understood in the Chinese sociocultural context. The implications of the findings are discussed.