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Prior research has shown that the home learning environment (HLE) is critical in the development of spatial skills and that various parental beliefs influence the HLE. However, a comprehensive analysis of the impact of different parental beliefs on the spatial HLE remains lacking, leaving unanswered questions about which specific parental beliefs are most influential and whether inducing a growth mindset can enhance the spatial HLE. To address these gaps, we conducted an online study with parents of 3- to 5-year-olds. We found that parents' growth mindset about their children's ability strongly predicted the spatial HLE after controlling for parents' motivational beliefs about their children, beliefs about their own ability, children's age, children's gender, and family SES. Further, reading an article about growth mindset led parents to choose more challenging spatial learning activities for their children. These findings highlight the critical role of parents' growth mindset in the spatial HLE. Crucially, these findings demonstrate that general growth mindset messages without specific suggestions for parental practices can influence parental behavior intentions. Further, these effects were also observed in the control domain of literacy, underscoring the broad relevance of the growth mindset in the HLE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this review, we propose that fiber arts – a wide array of practices that use string, yarn, and fabric to create functional and fine art textiles – present a novel avenue to both explore basic science questions about spatial skills and to design interventions that help children learn spatial skills. First, we outline how fiber arts are applicable to existing theoretical frameworks that aim to organize our understanding of spatial skills and highlight how fiber arts may be particularly relevant for understanding critically understudied non-rigid spatial skills. Next, we review the environmental factors that influence spatial skill development. In the third section of the paper, we review the literature on gender differences in spatial skill performance, as well as intervention approaches that have been taken to close gender gaps. Fourth, we outline how motivational features of fiber arts, specifically the roles of individual choice in goal-setting, and growth-mindset-consistent messages in fiber arts contexts, could contribute to spatial learning. Finally, we suggest several avenues for future research, including leveraging fiber arts materials and techniques to investigate non-rigid mental transformation skills, and designing gender-inclusive fiber-arts-based spatial skills interventions that maintain the motivationally relevant features of fiber arts practices and contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]