While there is evidence of associations between spatial skills and mathematics, relatively few studies explore theseassociations in children aged 5-10 years. I will present findings from longitudinal and cross-sectional studies to highlight theimportance of spatial skills as both longitudinal and concurrent predictors of mathematics. First, secondary data analysis of theMillennium Cohort Study indicates that spatial performance at both 5 and 7 years is a significant predictor of mathematics at age7 (N = 12099). Second, cross-sectional findings from children aged 5-10 years (N=156), suggest that spatial skills explain 10-12% of the variation in standardised maths performance and approximate number sense, even after accounting for vocabularyskills. That is, spatial scaling was a significant predictor of mathematics for all age groups, while the role of mental rotationand mental folding varied with age. These findings have implications for the design of mathematics interventions customisedfor specific developmental stages.

The current study investigated the relationship betweenchildren’s spatial ability and their scientific knowledge, skills andunderstanding. Children aged 7-11 years (N=123) completed abattery of five spatial tasks, based on a model of spatial ability inwhich skills fall along two dimensions: intrinsic-extrinsic; static-dynamic. Participants also answered science questions fromstandardised assessments, grouped into conceptual topic areas.Spatial scaling (extrinsic static spatial ability) and mental folding(intrinsic dynamic spatial ability) each emerged as predictors oftotal science scores, with mental folding accounting for morevariance than spatial scaling. Mental folding predicted bothphysics and biology scores, whereas spatial scaling accounted foradditional variance only in biology scores. The embeddedfigures task (intrinsic static spatial ability) predicted chemistryscores. The pattern was consistent across the age range. Thesefindings provide novel evidence for the differential role ofdistinct aspects of spatial ability in relation to children’s scienceperformance.