Abstract

This paper examines the ability of low visuospatial intelligence and non-verbal learning disabled children in understanding verbal descriptions of spatial relationships and of reproducing them. Tests which examine visuospatial abilities in children are reviewed. An assessment tool devised for the purpose of the present research is presented. Two studies were carried out with children of primary school. In the first study 39 low visuospatial, high verbal intelligence children were required to draw the situations presented in a series of descriptions. In the second study, children with a similar cognitive profile, but with a more severe diagnosis of nonverbal learning disability, were required to read spatial descriptions similar to those proposed in Study 1 and either to draw or to locate a series of drawings in a schematic representation of the described environment. The results show that low visuospatial ability children meet relevant problems in the treatment of spatial relationships even when they are described verbally and the description is still available to the children during the drawing/reproduction task.