Humans Have a Superpower Too — Spatial Thinking!
When, back in kindergarten, you were asked to draw a house, what would you do? Draw a rectangle with a triangle on top of it. (Hopefully, most of you did this, unless you were super creative and made a circular pumpkin house) But why did you draw the triangle on top and not the other way round? Probably because it didn’t seem right.
This ability to reason, interpret and visualise the shape, direction, location and orientation of objects and their relative position in space, is called Spatial thinking. This ability helps us to understand and remember the location of objects and thus imagine in our minds the way objects can move, rotate or transform to form spatial relations among them.
Why is Spatial thinking crucial?
Academics and professional fields, both require Spatial thinking skills. It is not only important for understanding mathematics and for achieving success in STEM-based disciplines but also plays a significant role in everyday tasks.
Have you ever faced trouble while packing your luggage before going on a trip? Especially when you need all the things and you can’t choose among them? Too many things to pack and not enough space? What do you do then? (unless you are like me, and throw away half of the items, thinking that they won’t be required and then end up buying the same things again) Most probably you would somehow work out ways to fold and fit in the items in such a way that all of them are accommodated.
Similarly, when you used to pack your bags for school, how did you decide where to put the books and where to keep the tiffin? Did you read some instruction manuals before doing that? No, you did it unconsciously. And the ability which helped you to pack your bags and luggage is none other than Spatial thinking, which allowed you to visualise what the position of objects should be in order to fit them into the given space.
These Spatial thinking skills help children learn to put on their shoes correctly and to button up their shirts. These skills are used by us, several times in a day, without even realizing it and hence, they are no less than any superpower.
These skills help us to identify directions and thus be conscious of our surroundings. Directional thinking is an important part of Spatial thinking skills. For instance, when you ask your friends to come home (especially when your parents are away) and give them the instructions to reach there, these skills come into play.
You need to imagine the path and create a map in your mind, in order to guide them through it. The instructions that you provide (like go straight, turn left, or take 20 steps towards East, and so on) involve directional thinking skills. Moreover, your friend needs to do the same and create a map mentally, in order to be able to follow the instructions and reach the destination.
Apart from playing an important role in the growth of a kid and the brain’s development, these skills are also helpful in improving their academic performance, especially in STEM-based disciplines.
Importance of Spatial Thinking in STEM education
Research shows that students who are good at spatial thinking also do good in mathematics and other STEM courses. This is because the part of the brain used for Spatial thinking, that is the parietal lobe, is also used for mathematics. For instance, kids who are good at using building blocks for construction, do better in tests involving numbers and counting. Those who are good at mental rotation can solve calculations involving missing numbers quickly and more easily, as compared to others.
As far as professional fields are concerned, they too are affected by spatial thinking skills. These skills are needed by an engineer to visualise the structure of the bridge or building that he’s going to construct. Doctors need these skills to ensure that they inject the medicines in the correct position. Research proves that students who have better spatial thinking skills have more chances of securing a job in STEM-related fields.
These skills are indeed quite beneficial but how do you help develop these skills in your kids? (Need help and the genie is here!)
Ways to develop Spatial thinking skills in kids
Spatial thinking is a cognitive skill which means that it can be improved through practice. There are many ways of improving spatial thinking skills, some of which are mentioned below.
1. Using spatial language in daily conversations
Use more and more spatial and directional terms in your conversations and also ask your kids to repeat after you and thus, encourage them to use such terms. Using spatial language is one of the best activities to improve these skills.
Terms describing shapes, dimensions and spatial relations, such as long, tall, square, triangle, straight, corner, inside, outside, etc. should be used more and more. For example, you could ask them questions like, “Is the ball on top of the table or under the table?” or “Is the tree inside the house or outside?” These simple interactions can be very helpful in developing spatial thinking skills.
You could even play games with your kids using spatial language, which would make the process easier and more enjoyable. For example, ask them to fetch some objects within a time frame. Instead of directly pointing towards the object, give them directions to the place where the object is.
It is just like how you used to play the blindfold game, where you would instruct the person to go x steps straight and then turn right and take some steps in that direction, and so on. The difference, here, is that your kids won’t be blindfolded but would rather learn to identify and process the directional instructions given to them.
2. Teach kids to use gestures
Using hand gestures and body language can be quite effective in teaching or communicating with students. This use of gestures to indicate the movement of objects helps to improve their visual-spatial ability.
3. Visualisation
Teach kids to use the mind’s eye! And that’s really easy. Read the phrase that follows and try to imagine the scene. A red apple on the plate. Did you just see a red apple through your mind’s eye? That’s what visualisation is, mentally representing an object which isn’t physically present. This also helps to imagine the path an object takes and its outcome. It is a very powerful way of enhancing spatial thinking.
4. Match it!
Let the children play matching games. You can build a Lego structure and then ask the children to build a similar structure with the same coloured blocks. Capability to match things based on shapes, colours and visual appearances helps to develop Spatial thinking skills.
5. Building blocks to tell a story
Block building activities and using Lego, wooden blocks or even empty matchboxes to design structures based on a script in a storytelling context, helps to develop Spatial thinking.
6. Puzzle solving
It has been recommended since ages to solve jigsaw puzzles because they help develop spatial thinking skills like mental transformation of objects. However, block building sets which have multiple solutions such as Tangram, are a better alternative to puzzles which have a fixed way of being fitted in. Tangram is an ancient Chinese puzzle which has 7 pieces that can be fixed in multiple ways to build different shapes. This makes students innovative, flexible and helps develop their spatial skills.
7. Map reading
Map reading helps to develop abstract thinking and allows students to easily deduce systematic relationships between spatial objects which physical world experience alone isn’t sufficient to teach. Seeing objects on a map, at a small scale can help students to understand the relation of real world objects present on a large scale at different locations.
8. Books are a man’s best friend
Picture books such as Rezoom are a great help in encouraging children to visualise and develop spatial thinking skills. The detailing in these books helps to portray the spatial relation among objects, which can be enhanced by verbally explaining the things and using gestures.
9. Video games
Video games don’t have only negative effects. Research proves that many video games help develop problem solving and spatial thinking skills. They also help you to analyse situations and make accurate decisions quickly and to keep track of information. Games such as Call of Duty, Forza, Tetris and StarCraft help develop spatial intelligence.
10. Photography
Spatial thinking requires the ability to imagine an object from different perspectives, visualising how it looks. Clicking photographs of an object from different angles can help children develop different visual perspectives and thus improve their skills.
11. Origami
Practising origami can help one to develop mental paper folding skills. And this can improve mental rotation abilities and eventually spatial thinking skills.
12. Playing and developing music
Playing music can improve spatial temporal reasoning in which the relation between objects changes through time. These skills can help you mentally figure out ways of fitting in many objects in a fixed space, like while packing clothes in a suitcase.
Spatial thinking is a crucial ability required in academics, professional careers as well as in everyday life. In spite of realizing its importance, proper measures aren’t implemented to inculcate it into the growth process of children. Thus, we need to take the steps to help kids develop these essential skills from an early age. By following the simple ways mentioned above, you can easily introduce these skills into the lives of your children. Next time when you pack your luggage, don’t forget to appreciate this inbuilt superpower which we have!
