Increase Your Child's Spatial Reasoning Skills
Why is spatial reasoning important? Because it’s related to skills in math, reading, higher-order thinking, and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).
Strong spatial reasoning skills are necessary to success in many.careers including that of engineer, graphic designer, physicist, architect, interior designer, CNC programmer, machinist, and surgeon.
Spatial reasoning is one feature of a person’s overall intelligence like verbal ability, reasoning, and memory. Spatial reasoning allows a person to visualize a 3D object in the mind and to mentally twist and turn the object in order to visualize it indifferent positions. It can be trained and when trained at a young age, it boosts math ability in school.
So let’s see how you can raise your child’s spatial reasoning skills in easy, fun ways.
1. Encourage your child’s natural touchy freely, hands-on curiosity to explore and to handle everything (that’s safe) within reach. This way, she gets a sense of the shape and texture of things.
2. Talk, talk, talk to him and use words that relate to the spatial world, that is, words that relate to shapes and the positions of objects, words like: in, on, over, under, next to, beside, tall, short, on top of, upside down, sideways, bottom, top, between, round, straight, circle, square, triangle, corner, etc. Ask her questions such as, “What happens when I turn this glass upside down?” or “Should I put the box on the table or under it?"
3. Playing with blocks and legos is a wonderful activity that helps strengthen spatial intelligence. Your child can either create an original structure or follow a blueprint.
4. Puzzles also help strengthen spatial intelligence, so it’s a good idea to encourage puzzle play. There are two general types of puzzles. One type has only one solution, while the other type is open-ended, meaning there are several or many solutions. Both make for good play, but open-ended puzzles enable your child to be more creative.