*Result*: The development of letter representations in preschool children is affected by visuomotor integration skills and visual field asymmetries.

Title:
The development of letter representations in preschool children is affected by visuomotor integration skills and visual field asymmetries.
Authors:
Ducrot S; Aix-Marseille Univ, CNRS, LPL 13100 Aix-en-Provence, France; Institute for Language, Communication, and the Brain, Aix-Marseille Université, Aix-en-Provence, France. Electronic address: Stephanie.ducrot@univ-amu.fr., Grainger J; Institute for Language, Communication, and the Brain, Aix-Marseille Université, Aix-en-Provence, France; Centre de Recherche en Psychologie et Neurosciences, CNRS & Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France.
Source:
Journal of experimental child psychology [J Exp Child Psychol] 2025 Sep; Vol. 257, pp. 106277. Date of Electronic Publication: 2025 Apr 21.
Publication Type:
Journal Article
Language:
English
Journal Info:
Publisher: Academic Press Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 2985128R Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1096-0457 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00220965 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Exp Child Psychol Subsets: MEDLINE
Imprint Name(s):
Publication: New York, NY : Academic Press
Original Publication: New York.
MeSH Terms:
Visual Fields*/physiology , Pattern Recognition, Visual*/physiology , Child Development*/physiology , Psychomotor Performance*/physiology, Humans ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Male ; Longitudinal Studies ; Attention/physiology ; Eye Movements/physiology
Contributed Indexing:
Keywords: Letter representations; Preschool children; Reading direction; Visual field asymmetries; Visuo-motor integration skills
Entry Date(s):
Date Created: 20250422 Date Completed: 20250513 Latest Revision: 20250513
Update Code:
20260130
DOI:
10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106277
PMID:
40262407
Database:
MEDLINE

*Further Information*

*One essential skill believed to consolidate during the preschool years is children's ability to recognize the different letters of the alphabet. The aim of the present study was to track how visual representations of letters change and are consolidated with exposure to print and the graphomotor experience a child has. A secondary goal of this study was to investigate the emergence of the right visual field advantage for letter identification, reflecting children's sensitivity to the directionality of print. Eighty-one preschool children (aged 4 to 5 years) participated in a longitudinal study where they were shown isolated uppercase letters in both normal upright format and rotated 180°. The letter stimuli were mixed randomly with symbol stimuli in a letter/non-letter lateralized classification task. The results indicated that accuracy in classifying rotated letters as letters-rather than symbols-significantly improved among 4-year-old preschoolers between testing in December (mid-year) and in June (end of the school year). In contrast, little further development was observed in 5-year-old preschoolers, although they still exhibited a slight disadvantage in accuracy when classifying rotated letters. Additionally, behavioral and eye-movement data highlighted a left-to-right deployment of attention by the end of the second year of formal preschool education, evidenced by the emergence of a right visual field advantage. Our results suggest that letter representations undergo significant consolidation during the second year of formal preschool education, which typically corresponds to 4-year-old children in France, with a close relationship between letter identification skills, sensitivity to the directionality of print, and visuo-motor integration skills.
(Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)*

*Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.*