Effects of specific toy playing experiences on the spatial visualization skills of girls ages 4 and 6

Girls and boys ages four and six years old were a part of a study investigating the spatial visualization skills of children. The specific spatial visualization ability needed to translate two dimensional drawings into three dimensional objects and the ability needed to translate three dimensional objects into two dimensional drawings were examined in addition to spatial perception skills.;Three groups (girls treatment, girls control, and boys control) in each of the two age categories (four year olds and six year olds) were pretested and posttested on the Motor Free Visual Perception (MFVP) Test (Academic Therapy Publications, 1972), Kinesthetic Spatial Concrete Building (KSCB) Test (developed by the researcher), and the Kinesthetic Spatial Concrete Matching (KSCM) Test (also developed by the researcher). The girls in the treatment group received six weeks of play sessions led by an early childhood specialist.;The toys used for the play sessions were limited to LEGO DUPLO blocks with activity cards and Blocks and Buildings with activity cards. Early childhood specialists provided experiences for the girls which involved continual manipulation of the blocks, practice in reading a two dimensional drawing and building an object which matched the drawing, and dialogue about the shapes and their relationships.;The findings indicated that specific toy playing activities can positively influence four year old girls' spatial visualization skills. In six weeks, four year old girls who received the experiences showed significant growth in the ability to interpret two dimensional drawings and relate that to a three dimensional object they could construct. It was also found that the spatial visual skills of four year old children and six year old children are measurably different.;No gender differences were found between four year olds or six year olds on any of the three measures. This study does give support to the theory that environmental influences are an effective means of nurturing the growth of spatial visualization abilities.