Cognitive associations of bimanual haptico-visual recognition in preschoolers.

We have investigated the relation between haptico-visual recognition of objects and cognitive tasks in two large samples of preschoolers (n = 534; n = 750). Children aged 6 years completed a cross-modal task in which they have first to haptically explore an object and second to visually recognize it; they also performed phonological, verbal semantic, and visual tasks. For two consecutive years, bimanual haptico-visual recognition was significantly correlated to performance at all the cognitive tasks. The meaning of this relationship is discussed. The study supports the view that haptico-visual recognition tasks should be used as screening tools for early identification of children at risk of learning difficulties.