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.
