Blocks May Help Children’s Spatial, Math Skills

PHILADELPHIA – Toy blocks may be the key to helping preshoolers to develop early skills to aide them later on in science, technology, engineering and math (all part of the STEM-related educational system). A study by the University of Delaware and Temple University found that children who were better at copying block structures were also better at early math.

The study, recently published in the journal Child Development, looked at more than 100 3-year-old children of various socioeconomic backgrounds and tested whether they could figure out that a block belongs above or below another block and whether they aligned the pieces. Spatial skills were also tested using a block-building exercise, while math skills were examined using activities such as simple counting to more complex operations like adding and subtracting.

By the age 3, children from lower-income families were already falling behind in spatial skills as well. This may be due to limited experience with blocks and other toys that may help with the development of these early skills, according to the study. Parents of low-income toddlers also reported using significantly fewer words such as "above" and "below" with their children.

"Research in the science of learning has shown that experiences like block building and puzzle play can improve children’s spatial skills and that these skills support complex mathematical problem solving in middle and high school," said Brian N. Verdine, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Delaware and one of the study’s authors in a Science Daily report. "This is the first research to demonstrate a similar relationship in preschoolers."

The study was funded by grants to Golinkoff and Hirsh-Pasek from the National Institutes of Health and from the National Science Foundation via the Spatial Intelligence Learning Center (SILC) at Temple University.