Motor and Visual-spatial Cognitive Abilities in Children Treated for Infantile Esotropia

While many studies have investigated links between motor and visual spatial cognitive abilities in typically developing children, only a few studies have tested this link among children with innate handicaps. Therefore, we assessed motor abilities (using the M-ABC-2) and visual spatial cognitive skills (using the Block Design subtest of the WPPSI-III and a picture mental rotation task, PRT) of 5-7 year old typically developing children (n= 17) and same-aged children with severe deficits in stereopsis due to infantile esotropia (n= 17). Compared to the typically developing children, children with esotropia showed significantly poorer motor performances, especially in manual dexterity and ball skills, and significantly poorer and slower performance on the visual spatial cognitive tasks. Especially the girls treated for infantile esotropia needed more time to mentally rotate the pictures of the PRT correctly. Overall, this study showed that perceptual, motor and cognitive processes are interconnected and that children treated for infantile esotropia had an increased risk of motor and visual spatial cognitive deficits.

Consolidation of crossmodal correspondences between auditory pitch and spatial features in childhood

Crossmodal correspondences between auditory pitch and spatial elevation have been demonstrated extensively in adults. High- and low-pitched sounds tend to be mapped onto upper and lower spatial positions, respectively. We hypothesised that this crossmodal link could be influenced by the development of spatial and linguistic abilities during childhood. To explore this possibility, 70 children (9-12 years old) divided into three groups (4th, 5th and 6th grade of primary school) completed a crossmodal test to evaluate the perceptual correspondence between pure tones and spatial elevation. Additionally, we addressed possible correlations between the students’ performance in this crossmodal task and other auditory, spatial and linguistic measures. The participants’ auditory pitch performance was measured in a frequency classification test. The participants also completed three tests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV (WISC-IV): (1) Vocabulary, to assess verbal intelligence, (2) Matrix reasoning, to measure visuospatial reasoning and (3) Blocks design, to analyse visuospatial/motor skills. The results revealed crossmodal effects between pitch and spatial elevation. Additionally, we found a correlation between the performance in the block design subtest with the pitch-elevation crossmodal correspondence and the auditory frequency classification test. No correlation was observed between auditory tasks with matrix and vocabulary subtests. This suggests (1) that the crossmodal correspondence between pitch and spatial elevation is already consolidated at the age of 9 and also (2) that good performance in a pitch-based auditory task is mildly associated, in childhood, with good performance in visuospatial/motor tasks.

Psychometric Properties of the Shipley Block Design Task: A Study With Jamaican Young Adults

We examined the structure of the new Block Patterns (BP) test from the Shipley Institute of Living Scale–Second Edition in a sample of Jamaican young adults. To date, very little has been published on the properties of this subtest’s items and scores. The BP test is similar in design to the Block Design subtest found in many cognitive ability assessments but uses a matching format that minimizes the need for excess materials and time. We analyzed the BP items using item response theory (IRT) methods. Although designed to measure a single construct, the analyses from this study found that the BP subtest is likely measuring more than a single construct, which confounds the interpretation of the instrument’s scores. Before the subtest is used clinically, more research should be done to purposefully investigate the effects of ancillary variables on its scores.

Block Design as a Measure of Everyday Spatial Ability: A Study of Ecological Validity

This study investigated the effectiveness of the WAIS–R Block Design subtest to predict everyday spatial ability for 65 university undergraduates (15 men, 50 women) who were administered Block Design, the Standardized Road Map Test of Direction Sense, and the Everyday Spatial Activities Test. In addition, the verbally loaded National Adult Reading Test was administered to assess whether the more visuospatial Block Design subtest was a better predictor of spatial ability. Moderate support was found. When age and sex were accounted for, Block Design accounted for 36% of the variance in performance ( r = -.62) on the Road Map Test and 19% of the variance on the performance of the Everyday Spatial Activities Test ( r = .42). In contrast, the scores on the National Adult Reading Test did not predict performance on the Road Map Test or Everyday Spatial Abilities Test. This suggests that, with appropriate caution, Block Design could be used as a measure of everyday spatial abilities.