Developmental profiles of spatial language, and associations with spatial cognition and mathematics

Little is known about how parental spatial language input relates to children’s spatial cognition or mathematics performance or how children’s own spatial language develops. The current study examined spatial language at 24 months (N = 187 families; 105 boys) and 48 months (N = 115 families; 66 boys), and spatial cognition and number performance at 48 months. Child spatial language was predominantly from the categories of “deictics,” “location and direction,” “continuous amount” and “spatial dimensions” at both timepoints. The diversity of parents’ spatial language (spatial language quality) at 24 months was longitudinally associated with child numeracy at 48 months. Findings are discussed in relation to existing literature.<p></p>