Assessing children's spatial thinking: Insights, challenges, and implications

In the past few decades, interest in children's spatial thinking has increased substantially, and consequently, interest in spatial assessments for children has also increased. However, there are not many reliable, validated, and widely accessible spatial assessments for this segment of the population, which affects researchers' ability to conduct and interpret spatial thinking research. While some limitations of these tests relate to broader issues with spatial assessments in general (see Uttal et al., 2024), creating assessments that are appropriate for children presents unique challenges. In this chapter, we review the current state of tests of children's spatial thinking, including mental rotation and perspective-taking. We draw on insights from psychometrics, open science, and cognitive development research. Furthermore, we examine how spatial assessments affect research on the relation between spatial and STEM abilities, particularly research aimed at leveraging spatial thinking through interventions and training that improve children's spatial skills and, in turn, their STEM performance (i.e., Bruce & Hawes, 2015; Cheng & Mix, 2014; Hawes et al., 2022; Judd & Klingberg, 2021; Mix et al., 2021). Lastly, we outline recommendations for improving these assessments to ultimately improve research and theory creation on the development of spatial thinking.