Finding the missing piece: Blocks, puzzles, and shapes fuel school readiness

Verdine, Brian N.; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick; Hirsh‐Pasek, Kathryn; Newcombe, Nora S.

doi:10.1016/j.tine.2014.02.005

Cited by 137 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…This finding was attributed to the possibility that spatial training primed children to approach the problems through spatially reorganizing the problems (e.g., 2þ____¼8 becomes ____¼8-2). This is an important finding and one that provides preliminary evidence for the claim that spatial instruction is likely to have a "two-for-one" effect, yielding benefits in both spatial thinking and mathematics [41]. However, caution should be warranted as this is but one study to demonstrate such a finding.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 66%

“…Understanding whether and how spatial thinking and mathematics influence the development of one another is of critical importance for the design and implementation of future educational interventions. In the current study, we tested the idea that spatial training is likely to yield benefits in mathematics performance (see [3,41]). …”

Section: Far Transfer Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Broadly defined as the ability to generate, retrieve, maintain, and manipulate visual-spatial information [27], spatial thinking plays a critical role throughout education [41,44]. For example, spatial skills have been linked to performance in music [19],visual arts [15], physical education [35], geography [34], science [44], and perhaps most notably, mathematics [28].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…What explains the lack of spatial instruction? One possibility has to do with the common perception that spatial ability is a fixed intellectual trait -'either you have it or you don't' -and for this reason is viewed as "unteachable" [41]. Yet, recent research findings indicate that spatial thinking is not as immutable as many people may have been led to believe.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Effects of mental rotation training on children’s spatial and mathematics performance: A randomized controlled study

Hawes

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Caswell

et al. 2015

Trends in Neuroscience and Education

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111

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 66%

Section: Far Transfer Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Effects of mental rotation training on children’s spatial and mathematics performance: A randomized controlled study

Hawes

Moss

Caswell

et al. 2015

Trends in Neuroscience and Education

143

111

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…The puzzle imitation task was chosen because it is nonverbal, which enables testing across a wider age range. It is also an ecologically valid imitation task because it involves an everyday activity (puzzle play) and because multiple early educational touchscreen applications use puzzles (Dickerson et al, 2013;Levine, Ratliff, Cannon, & Huttenlocher, 2012;Verdine, Golinkoff, Hirsh-Pasek, & Newcombe, 2014).…”

Section: The Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

They can interact, but can they learn? Toddlers’ transfer learning from touchscreens and television

Moser

Zimmermann

Dickerson

et al. 2015

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

121

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Association of the Type of Toy Used During Play With the Quantity and Quality of Parent-Infant Communication

Sosa

2016

JAMA Pediatr

113

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The early language environment of a child influences language outcome, which in turn affects reading and academic success. It is unknown which types of everyday activities promote the best language environment for children. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether the type of toy used during play is associated with the parent-infant communicative interaction. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Controlled experiment in a natural environment of parent-infant communication during play with 3 different toy sets. Participant recruitment and data collection were conducted between February 1, 2013, and June 30, 2014. The volunteer sample included 26 parent-infant (aged 10-16 months) dyads. EXPOSURES Fifteen-minute in-home parent-infant play sessions with electronic toys, traditional toys, and books. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Numbers of adult words, child vocalizations, conversational turns, parent verbal responses to child utterances, and words produced by parents in 3 different semantic categories (content-specific words) per minute during play sessions. RESULTS Among the 26 parent-infant dyads, toy type was associated with all outcome measures. During play with electronic toys, there were fewer adult words (mean, 39.62; 95% CI, 33.36-45.65), fewer conversational turns (mean, 1.64; 95% CI, 1.12-2.19), fewer parental responses (mean, 1.31; 95% CI, 0.87-1.77), and fewer productions of content-specific words (mean, 1.89; 95% CI, 1.49-2.35) than during play with traditional toys or books. Children vocalized less during play with electronic toys (mean per minute, 2.9; 95% CI, 2.16-3.69) than during play with books (mean per minute, 3.91; 95% CI, 3.09-4.68). Parents produced fewer words during play with traditional toys (mean per minute, 55.56; 95% CI, 46.49-64.17) than during play with books (mean per minute, 66.89; 95% CI, 59.93-74.19) and use of content-specific words was lower during play with traditional toys (mean per minute, 4.09; 95% CI, 3.26-4.99) than during play with books (mean per minute, 6.96; 95% CI, 6.07-7.97). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Play with electronic toys is associated with decreased quantity and quality of language input compared with play with books or traditional toys. To promote early language development, play with electronic toys should be discouraged. Traditional toys may be a valuable alternative for parent-infant play time if book reading is not a preferred activity.

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Finding the missing piece: Blocks, puzzles, and shapes fuel school readiness

Cited by 137 publications

References 50 publications

Effects of mental rotation training on children’s spatial and mathematics performance: A randomized controlled study

Effects of mental rotation training on children’s spatial and mathematics performance: A randomized controlled study

They can interact, but can they learn? Toddlers’ transfer learning from touchscreens and television

Association of the Type of Toy Used During Play With the Quantity and Quality of Parent-Infant Communication

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