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Published on: November 14, 2018
Development of Visuospatial Attention in Typically Developing Children
Gaétan Ickx1, Yannick Bleyenheuft1, Samar M Hatem1,2,3
1Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
Insights
This study explored visuospatial attention development in children. Performance on some tasks improved until age 13, while others remained stable, indicating different developmental paths for visuospatial skills.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Visuospatial attention is crucial for cognitive development.
- Understanding typical development is essential for identifying atypical patterns.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the developmental trajectories of visuospatial attention in typically developing children.
- To establish reference values for six visuospatial attention tests.
- To explore the dissociation between different types of visuospatial attention tasks.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of data from 159 primary and secondary school children.
- Administration of six visuospatial attention tests: star cancellation, Ogden figure, reading test, line bisection, proprioceptive pointing, and visuo-proprioceptive pointing.
- Age-based performance analysis and correlation between egocentric and allocentric measures.
Main Results:
- Performance on star cancellation, Ogden figure, and reading tests improved up to age 13.
- Performance on proprioceptive pointing, visuo-proprioceptive pointing, and line bisection remained stable with age.
- A dissociation was observed between different visuospatial attention task developmental trajectories, with limited correlation between egocentric and allocentric measures.
Conclusions:
- Visuospatial attention development is not uniform across all tasks.
- Different visuospatial attention tests reveal distinct developmental pathways.
- Proposed reference values can aid in assessing children with visuospatial attention disorders.
Abstract:
The aim of the present study is to investigate the development of visuospatial attention in typically developing children and to propose reference values for children for the following six visuospatial attention tests: star cancellation, Ogden figure, reading test, line bisection, proprioceptive pointing and visuo-proprioceptive pointing. Data of 159 children attending primary or secondary school in the Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles (Belgium) were analyzed. Results showed that the children's performance on star cancellation, Ogden figure and reading test improved until the age of 13 years, whereas their performance on proprioceptive pointing, visuo-proprioceptive pointing and line bisection was stable with increasing age. These results suggest that the execution of different types of visuospatial attention tasks are not following the same developmental trajectories. This dissociation is strengthened by the lack of correlation observed between tests assessing egocentric and allocentric visuospatial attention, except for the star cancellation test (egocentric) and the Ogden figure copy (ego- and allocentric). Reference values are proposed that may be useful to examine children with clinical disorders of visuospatial attention.
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