Wu Dandan, Sun Jin
School of Education, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Department of Early Childhood Education, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong.
Front Psychol. 2020 Dec 4;11:568439. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.568439. eCollection 2020.
Paper folding is a common activity in East Asian kindergartens, but its potential value to early spatial skills have not been empirically explored. This study aims to investigate whether and how paper folding skills can predict spatial ability (SA) in the early years. Altogether 101 preschoolers ( = 45, = 4.54, = 0.75) were randomly sampled from two Hong Kong kindergartens and invited to complete the map-use and the paper folding tasks. The paper folding task taps two levels of children's paper folding skills: Basic Folding Skill (BFS) and Advanced Folding Skill (AFS). The parents reported the demographic information and their involvement in spatial activities at home. The results indicated the following: (1) there was a significant age-related increase in the paper folding performance; (2) child age could significantly predict both BFS ( = 0.551, < 0.001) and AFS ( = 0.627, < 0.001), while parental involvement could only predict BFS ( = 0.246, < 0.001); (3) after controlling for confounders, paper folding skills could significantly predict SA as measured by the map-use task; (4) BFS was found to mediate the relationship between parental involvement and SA. The educational implications of these findings are also discussed.
折纸是东亚幼儿园常见的活动，但其对早期空间技能的潜在价值尚未得到实证研究。本研究旨在调查折纸技能是否以及如何能够预测儿童早期的空间能力（SA）。从香港两所幼儿园中随机抽取了101名学龄前儿童（ = 45， = 4.54， = 0.75），邀请他们完成地图使用和折纸任务。折纸任务考察了儿童折纸技能的两个水平：基本折纸技能（BFS）和高级折纸技能（AFS）。家长报告了人口统计学信息以及他们在家中参与空间活动的情况。结果表明：（1）折纸表现随年龄增长有显著提高；（2）儿童年龄能显著预测BFS（ = 0.551， < 0.001）和AFS（ = 0.627， < 0.001），而家长参与度仅能预测BFS（ = 0.246， < 0.001）；（3）在控制混杂因素后，折纸技能能显著预测通过地图使用任务测量的空间能力；（4）发现BFS在家长参与度和空间能力之间起中介作用。本文还讨论了这些研究结果的教育意义。
