Gender Differences in Mothers' Spatial Language Use and Children's Mental Rotation Abilities in Preschool and Kindergarten

Autor/inn/en	Ralph, Yvonne K.; Berinhout, Kate; Maguire, Mandy J.
Titel	Gender Differences in Mothers' Spatial Language Use and Children's Mental Rotation Abilities in Preschool and Kindergarten
Quelle	In: Developmental Science, 24 (2021) 2, (11 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Ralph, Yvonne K.)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1467-7687
DOI	10.1111/desc.13037
Schlagwörter	Spatial Ability; Gender Differences; Mothers; Language Usage; Preschool Children; Kindergarten; Young Children; Visualization; Elementary School Students; Grade 1; Linguistic Input + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Räumliches Vorstellungsvermögen; Geschlechterkonflikt; Mother; Mutter; Sprachgebrauch; Pre-school age; Preschool age; Child; Children; Pre-school education; Preschool education; Vorschulalter; Kind; Kinder; Vorschulkind; Vorschulkinder; Vorschulerziehung; Vorschule; Frühe Kindheit; Visualisation; Visualisierung; School year 01; 1. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 01; Sprachbildung
Abstract	Mental rotation has emerged as an important predictor of success in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). By the age of 4.5 years, boys outperform girls in these abilities. Because parents use less spatial language with girls at this age (Pruden and Levine, 2017), the amount of spatial language that children are exposed to at home is believed to be one potential contributor to this disparity in preschool age children. To date, it is unclear if this gender difference continues when children enter school. To address this question in this study, children not yet in kindergarten (PreK) and kindergarten and first grade children (K+) were recorded playing with their mothers using magnetic tile toys followed by children's completion of a mental rotation task. As expected, mothers used more spatial language with PreK boys than girls; however, this relationship reversed in K+, with mothers using significantly more spatial language with girls than boys. Surprisingly, despite this, boys outperformed girls on the mental rotation task. These findings suggest that although girls' exposure to spatial language is higher after entry into school, this language difference is not reflected in increases in mental rotation abilities. Thus, earlier exposure to spatial language may be vital for the development of mental rotation abilities. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01