Spatial Exercises

Growing YearsSpatial ability is a category of reasoning skills that refers to the capacity to think about objects in three dimensions and draw conclusions about them from limited information. Someone with good spatial reasoning skills might be particularly quick to finish a tangram puzzle, a game in which smaller shapes must combine to form a larger shape, or good at thinking about how an object will look when rotated. Spatial skills are crucial for the architect, sculptor, and surgeon and can predict a child’s achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. These skills are valuable in many real-world situations and can be improved with practice.

The Block Design test is used to measure spatial skills in young children when entering kindergarten. They are given a set of blocks to recreate a structure seen on a flat piece of paper. In order to recreate it with the blocks, the child needs to be able to visualize it in space. Studies show that babies and toddlers who heard and used a lot of spatial words, scored higher on spatial skills tests as preschoolers. You can teach the spatial skills to your child in a number of ways.

– Play construction games that challenge kids to recreate a design from a sample or diagram (and don’t forget to talk about it!)Wooden blocks, interlocking plastic blocks (e.g., Lego, Duplo), Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys.

Use spatial words often and early, showing examples: big, little, tall, short, fat, thin, thick, empty, tiny, full, circle, rectangle, octagon, triangle, oval, pentagon, bent, curvy, straight, flat, edge, pointy, side, line.

Motivate your child to think spatially by asking questions like: Will the groceries fit in one bag? Which way does the sheet fit on the bed? Does the left shoelace go over or under? What shapes do we get if we cut a bagel (lengthwise or crosswise)?

Take advantage of everyday opportunities to practice spatial thinking. Spatial tasks and challenges are everywhere.

Encourage kids to gesture when they think about spatial problems. It helps to perform mental rotation tasks (necessary for spatial thinking).

Play with tangrams and jigsaw puzzles. Puzzle-solving ability and spatial intelligence are linked. In a recent study, the more often a child worked on puzzles before the age of 4, the better they performed on a test of mental transformations of 2-dimensional shapes in preschool.

Practice mental rotation skills by playing Tetris.Mental rotation is the brain moving objects in order to understand what they are and where they belong.

Play action video games. Research suggests that video game technology may have important applications for the training of spatial skills. There are plenty of non-violent games on the     market.

Remind your child to visualize when they encounter spatial problems. Children can visualize basic physics problems, but they need to be reminded to do it. For example, ask 3-year-olds to predict where a ball would go after they drop it into a winding tube. When reminded to first visualize the ball’s path, your child will be able to give an answer that is more correct.

Encourage your child to use, create, and explain maps. Even a small child can learn to interpret a map of their room, and then use it to show where, in the room, they have hidden a toy.

Photography will encourage your child to experiment with different camera angles and different senses of scale.