Playing with shapes helps improve our math

According to a new study published in the current issue of the journal Development Psychology connects the skills children gain when playing with and exploring how shapes fit together to make recognizable objects to improved spatial understanding, math and better achievement, particularly in geometry.

The paper "The Relation Between Spatial Skill and Early Number Knowledge: The Role of the Linear Number Line," suggests that improving children's spatial thinking at a young age may not only help foster skills specific to spatial reasoning but also improve symbolic numerical representations.

The researchers from the University of Chicago showed that the children with better spatial skills performed better on number line tests that were related to their later performance on the approximate calculation tests.