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a b s t r a c t 5 a r t i c l e i n f o 6 This study was designed to examine early predictors of later math reasoning in girls. Specifically, girls' first-grade 18 spatial skills were compared with first-grade verbal and arithmetic skills as predictors of spatial and verbal-19 analytical math reasoning in fifth grade (N = 79). The first-grade girls were given assessments measuring: 20 (1) spatial skills (WISC-IV Block-Design subtest, and 2-d and 3-d mental-rotation tasks), (2) verbal skills 21 (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test), and (3) arithmetic skills (addition/subtraction). In fifth grade, girls were 22 given a math-reasoning test, assessing both math reasoning-spatial (geometry/measurement items) and math 23 reasoning-analytical (number/algebra items). The estimated path model accounted for approximately half the 24 variance in math reasoning. First-grade spatial skills were the strongest predictors of both types of fifth-grade 25 math reasoning. First-grade arithmetic skills significantly predicted math reasoning-analytical. Early verbal skills 26 were not directly related to fifth-grade math reasoning, although there was an indirect pathway connecting them 27 through early spatial skills. Thus, spatial skills, assessed by first grade, already function as key long-term predic-28 tors of analytical as well as spatial math-reasoning skills as late as fifth grade. 29 30 31 32 33 34 65 long-term consequences for girls' opportunities in math-related fields 66 (Webb, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2007), it is critical that we have a better un-67 derstanding of girls' early spatial skills, and their relation to math rea-68 soning at around fifth grade when gender differences in mathematics 69 start to emerge. This is the rationale in the present study for focusing 70 specifically on math reasoning at fifth grade rather than assessing 71 general math achievement. 72 1.2. Spatial predictors of math performance 73 In a 2012 review, Mix and Cheng (2012) reported that connections 74 between space and math are one of the most robust and wellLearning and Individual Differences xxx (2015) xxx-xxx☆ This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under NSF #HRD-1231623. We would like to thank Michael Schiro, Larry Ludlow, and Sumru Erkut who helped design the math reasoning assessment. We would like to thank the teachers and students from the two Boston-area communities where testing was conducted. We are also grateful to Jessica Carbone, Margeau Frigon, Beiming Ye, and Claire Ritten, who assisted us on the project.

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