Visual spatial skill: A consequence of learning to read?

• Published in: Journal of experimental child psychology Vol. 109; no. 2; pp. 256 - 262
• Main Authors: McBride-Chang, Catherine, Zhou, Yanling, Cho, Jeung-Ryeul, Aram, Dorit, Levin, Iris, Tolchinsky, Liliana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Inc 01.06.2011; Elsevier; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Analysis of Variance; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child development; Child Psychology; Child, Preschool; Chinese; Cross-cultural; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Developmental psychology; Experimental Psychology; Female; Foreign Countries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hebrew; Hong Kong; Humans; Israel; Kindergarten; Kindergarten students; Korea; Learning - physiology; Learning Processes; Male; Orthography; Predictor Variables; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reading; Reading Ability; Scoring; Skill Development; Space Perception - physiology; Spain; Spanish; Spatial Ability; Task Analysis; Task Performance and Analysis; Time Factors (Learning); Visual skill; Visual Stimuli; Visual task performance; Word reading; Young Children; South Korea; Israel; Hong Kong; Spain; Asia; China; Europe; Korea; Cross-cultural; Visual skill; Word reading; Hebrew; Chinese; Spanish; Orthography; Preschool age; Social environment; Human; Crosscultural study; Word; Spatial ability; Cognition; Space perception; Experimental study; Learning; Skill; Reading; Acquisition process; Language; Vision; Child
• ISSN: 0022-0965; 1096-0457
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2010.12.003

Does learning to read influence one’s visual skill? In Study 1, kindergartners from Hong Kong, Korea, Israel, and Spain were tested on word reading and a task of visual spatial skill. Chinese and Korean kindergartners significantly outperformed Israeli and Spanish readers on the visual task. Moreover, in all cultures except Korea, good readers scored significantly higher on the visual task than did less good readers. In Study 2, we followed 215 Hong Kong Chinese kindergartners across 1 year, with word reading and visual skills tested twice. In this study, word reading at Time 1 by itself predicted 13% of unique variance in visual skill at Time 2. Together, these results underscore the potential importance of the process of learning to read for shaping one’s visual spatial skill development.