ERIC Number: EJ1490274
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Nov
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1751-2271
EISSN: EISSN-1751-228X
Available Date: 2025-08-14
A Month-Long Parent-Led Spatial Intervention Failed to Improve Children's Spatial Skills
Jing Tian1; Grace Bennett-Pierre2; Nadia Tavassolie3; Xinhe Zhang4; Emily D'Antonio5; Lexi Sylverne6; Nora S. Newcombe3; Marsha Weinraub3; Annemarie Hindman7; Kristie Newton8; Elizabeth A. Gunderson4
Mind, Brain, and Education, v19 n4 p208-218 2025
The frequency of home spatial activities (e.g., puzzles and blocks) correlates with young children's spatial skills, but causal evidence is limited. We addressed this issue by comparing the effects of a parent-led intervention aimed at increasing spatial activities to an active control targeting narrative activities (preregistered: https://osf.io/u7qrx). Parents of 80 4- and 5-year-old children were randomly assigned to either a spatial or narrative condition. Parents learned about the importance and malleability of spatial or narrative skills and engaged their children in spatial or narrative activities provided by the researchers for a month. Unexpectedly, the spatial intervention did not significantly enhance children's spatial skills or parents' motivational beliefs regarding children's spatial abilities. These findings do not support the hypothesis that spatial play causally influences children's skills. However, we note that the families in our sample had high socioeconomic status, and their children may have already benefited from rich spatial environments.
Descriptors: Spatial Ability, Intervention, Parents as Teachers, Young Children, Program Effectiveness, Play, Skill Development, Learning Activities, Speech Communication
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www-wiley-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Department of Psychology, Fordham University, NY; 2CIRES Center for Education, Engagement, and Evaluation, University of Colorado; 3Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Temple University, PA; 4Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington; 5Department of Communication Studies, West Virginia University; 6Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, NJ; 7School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; 8College of Education and Human Development, Temple University, PA

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