Mental Imagery and School Readiness

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between the skills that constitute school readiness, such as linguistic, phonological, logical-mathematical and psychomotor skills, and mental imagery processes in preschool children. The participants were 100 healthy children (50 boys and 50 girls) aged four to five. Two batteries of tests were used to assess school readiness and different aspects of the mental imagery processes. The mental imagery battery measured mental imagery generation, inspection, and rotation of images. The results showed a relationship between the generation and inspection processes and the level of skills that constitute school readiness. These findings emphasize the potential usefulness of screening all preschoolers and kindergarteners for imagery ability, with the aim of adopting effective measures to increase their mental imagery abilities.