The Links Between Spatial and Math Skills in Preterm and Full-Term Children

Abstract

The current study investigated the link between subdomains of spatial and math skills in preschool-aged full-term and preterm-born children. We assessed 238 English-speaking children living in the United States (114 girls; 113 preterm, 125 full-term, Mage = 4.79, SD = 0.60) on their spatial (matrix reasoning, mental rotation) and math (counting, cardinality, and arithmetic assessed by addition and subtraction) skills. Regardless of neonatal status, matrix reasoning skills were related to verbal counting, cardinality, and addition performances, whereas mental rotation skills were related to subtraction performance. Among the preterm group, mental rotation was only related to subtraction skills for those with higher gestational age. These findings suggest that space-math links are mostly robust across children following different developmental trajectories, and interventions might focus on specific spatial skills to increase children’s targeted math skills.