ABSTRACT Block-building skills at age 3 are related to spatial skills at age 5 and spatial skills in grade school are linked to later success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Though studies have focused on block-building behaviors and design complexity, few have examined these variables in relation to future spatial and mathematical skills or have considered how children go about copying the model in detail. This study coded 3-year-olds’ (N = 102) block-building behaviors and structural complexity on 3-D trials of the Test of Spatial Assembly (TOSA). It explored whether individual differences in children’s building behaviors and the complexity of their designs related to accuracy in copying the model block structures or their spatial and mathematical skills at ages 4 and 5. Our findings reveal that block-building behaviors were associated with concurrent and later spatial skills while structural complexity was associated with concurrent and later spatial skills as well as concurrent mathematics skills. Future work might teach children to engage in the apparently successful block-building strategies examined in this research to evaluate a potential causal mechanism.

中文翻译：

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3 岁儿童的积木复杂性与后期空间和数学技能的关联


摘要 3 岁时的积木搭建技能与 5 岁时的空间技能相关，小学时的空间技能与以后在科学、技术、工程和数学 (STEM) 领域的成功相关。尽管研究主要集中在积木行为和设计复杂性上，但很少有人研究这些变量与未来空间和数学技能的关系，也很少考虑孩子们如何详细复制模型。这项研究在空间组装测试 (TOSA) 的 3D 试验中对 3 岁儿童 (N = 102) 的积木行为和结构复杂性进行了编码。它探讨了儿童搭建行为的个体差异及其设计的复杂性是否与复制模型积木结构的准确性或他们在 4 岁和 5 岁时的空间和数学技能有关。我们的研究结果表明，积木行为与同时和稍后的行为有关。空间技能，而结构复杂性与并发和后来的空间技能以及并发数学技能相关。未来的工作可能会教孩子们参与本研究中检查的明显成功的积木构建策略，以评估潜在的因果机制。