The Shortened Visuo-Spatial Questionnaire for Children: A New Tool to Identify Students with Low Visuo-Spatial Abilities

The current research was aimed mainly at exploring the reliability of a short-screening tool developed to self-evaluate visuospatial abilities in children. We presented 290 Italian third, fourth, and fifth graders with the 16-item Shortened Visuospatial questionnaire and several objective measures of intellectual efficiency, such as Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices test, and verbal meaning, spatial relations, and perceptual speed measures based on the Primary Mental Abilities Battery. At the same time, a corresponding 18-item Shortened Visuospatial questionnaire was administered to teachers. Results show a sufficient connection between the visuospatial index of the Shortened Visuospatial questionnaire for children, its counterpart developed for teachers, and objective measures of intellectual efficiency. Finally, Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices score accurately predicted the visuospatial index of the Shortened Visuospatial questionnaire completed by children. In conclusion, the Shortened Visuospatial questionnaire is a rapid and reliable tool for the early screening of visuospatial deficits