Individual differences in spatial and mathematics skills: Implications for educational and clinical psychology

In a recent empirical article published in Cognition, we examined the relationships between spatial and mathematics skills in a cross-sectional sample of 1,592 children that included kindergarteners, third graders, and sixth graders. We tested whether individual differences in math and spatial skills could be explained by factors such as socioeconomic status or sex (i.e., boys vs. girls), and furthermore, whether the relationships between spatial and math skills were moderated by these factors or by developmental stage. This brief article serves as a summary and extension of our recent work, with a discussion of implications that may be relevant to educational and clinical psychologists. We encourage readers to reference our empirical article for a more thorough presentation of the issues discussed in the present review.