What is Spatial Intelligence?

Spatial intelligence is a fundamental cognitive ability that allows children to understand and interact with the visual world around them. 

Also known as spatial reasoning, it’s the capacity to learn and reason from visual data, much like playing a game of ‘Tetris’ where one visualizes how different parts fit together to form a whole. Children with strong spatial awareness excel at tasks like building with Lego, interpreting maps and graphs, and even performing well in sports due to their ability to track objects and move their bodies effectively in space.

Our understanding of spatial reasoning is enriched by Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, which recognizes spatial learning as a distinct form of intelligence, separate from verbal abilities. This highlights that visual-spatial skills are a unique and valuable cognitive ability.

Recognizing Spatial Intelligence Challenges

Difficulties with spatial reasoning can manifest in various ways. 

Here are some challenges you might see with your child. 

• Struggling with visual tracking: Having a hard time following a Rubik’s Cube, a yo-yo, or a bouncy ball, or losing their place while reading.
• Having trouble with maps and puzzles: Not being able to locate places on a map or globe, or preferring reading and talking over completing puzzles.
• Difficulty sorting objects: Struggling to efficiently group similar items, often preferring verbal interactions.
• Confusing left and right: Extending to challenges with body awareness and sports.
• Getting lost in familiar places: Experiencing disorientation in their school or a store.
• Challenges with coordinating outfits: Their clothes might not match due to difficulty visualizing combinations.

Understanding the Roots of Spatial Intelligence Issues

Problems with visual-spatial skills, which are used in spatial intelligence, often stem from issues in several key areas.

Visual Skills

• Visual perception: Difficulty recognizing and perceiving figures and shapes, like not seeing all the pieces in a puzzle.
• Visual planning: Struggling to foresee moves and steps, as seen in games like chess.
• Visual sequencing: Trouble putting things in order visually, such as connecting dots in a puzzle or solving word scrambles.
• Visual tracking: Difficulty following words on a page or objects moving through space.
• Visual memory: Inability to recall observed information, like remembering what was on a board long enough to copy it.

Central Coherence

Central coherence refers to the ability to understand part-to-whole relationships and grasp the main concept or “big picture.” Children with challenges here might get lost in the details when describing a picture or telling a story.

Attention

Difficulties with visual-spatial skills can be linked to attention issues, such as getting stuck on one part of a puzzle (rigidity) or not staying with a task long enough (sustained attention). Shifting attention between multiple visual stimuli can also be a challenge.

Nurturing Spatial Reasoning Skills

There are many practical strategies you can employ to support your child’s spatial reasoning development. These strategies are great to do with your child, whether or not your child is struggling with spatial reasoning.

• Create visual aids: Use graphics to help children differentiate left from right.
• Discuss spatial relationships: Talk about locations and directions while driving or walking.
• Explore maps together: Engage with maps to understand how they work and how to read them.
• Educate on shapes and sizes: Discuss the forms and dimensions of household objects.
• Encourage active play: Play ball and explore how the body moves in space.
• Discuss personal space: Use visual tools like hula hoops to illustrate distance.
• Engage with puzzles: Work on puzzles together, commenting on how pieces fit, their shape, and location.
• Pack for trips collaboratively: Demonstrate efficient packing strategies.
• Leverage verbal skills: Encourage the use of verbal learning strategies to compensate for visual challenges, such as memorizing facts or creating songs to learn spatial information.
• Consult with teachers: Discuss whether current STEM education approaches are appropriate for a child who may be a more auditory learner.

When to Seek Professional Guidance

If a child consistently struggles with puzzles, maps, and graphs, it may indicate an underlying visual-spatial or cognitive difference. While some children may adapt well, more significant struggles might point to learning differences that could benefit from intervention or remediation. Children with extreme difficulties in shifting or sustaining attention may benefit from evaluation for neurotypes like autism or ADHD, which may require specific support.

Further Resources on Spatial Reasoning

• DeThorne, Laura, Schaefer, Barbara (2014). A guide to nonverbal IQ measures. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology*. (13), pp.275-290.*
• Eide, Brock & Eide, Fernette (2006). The mislabeled child: How understanding your child’s unique learning style can open the door to success.
• Kroncke, Willard, & Huckabee (2016). Assessment of autism spectrum neurotype: Critical issues in clinical, forensic, and school settings. Springer, San Francisco.
• Mather, Nancy & Goldstein, Sam (2015). Learning differences and challenging behaviors: Using the building blocks model to guide intervention and classroom management, third edition.