Data underlying the research of Relationship between block building skills and spatial ability in 5 to 6 years old children: The mediating role of visuospatial working memory

Children aged 5-6 years old (<em>N </em>= 62; 34 boys, 28 girls) completed behavioral assessments of block building skills (e.g., creating enclosed structures), spatial ability (e.g., creating a block structure similar to one in a picture), and visuospatial working memory (e.g., remembering the order in which the researcher tapped different blocks). As hypothesized, regression-based analyses showed that visuospatial working memory fully mediated the association between block building skills and spatial ability. That is, block building skills predicted visuospatial working memory, which in turn predicted spatial skills. The results enrich the literature on young children’s block play by identifying a mechanism by which block play is associated with spatial ability, and they have implications for designing interventions to promote spatial skills.