Early years spatial awareness - do you know where your body is in space? Are your children always bumping into each other, you, or things?

Spatial awareness is quite complicated, and it takes time for children to develop this, and some health conditions can have an impact on its development.

All movement happens in space, and children need to develop their inner and outer spaces, and some may need a little extra help along the way.

What is spatial awareness?

Knowing where you are in relation to other objects and people is Spatial awareness. It helps us to think in two and three dimensions. This allows you to visualise objects from different perspectives and recognise them.

Good spatial awareness is when you can respond and change position which is actually a complex skill. Fortunately, this is developed from an early age, but help is needed to encourage and develop this skill.

The skills we are developing include:

Interoception

Feeling one’s inner physical state of being (temperature, comfort level, arousal)

Proprioception

Sensing stimuli received from within the body (movement, position, weight, gravity, tension and effort)

Exteroception

Feeling stimuli received from outside the body (seeing, hearing, and touching the environment)
Franklin, Eric N. “Dance imagery for technique and performance”, pg 117.

Human Kinetics and Movement

When you are looking at movement in terms of human kinetics, you have space, plane, and the shape of the movement. This is where the body moves in space and its relationship to others. Here is a super quick breakdown of the movements we make without even thinking about it.

Extension

The size of the movement: small - near to the body, or large - far from the body.

Level

How the movement travels. This could be a high, medium or deep (low).

Direction

Where the movement is taking you. Certain directions will be due to the movements for example rising and sinking will take you high and low.

Air pattern

• Straight line
• Angular
• Curved
• Twisted

Floor pattern

Does it take place in the space immediately around the body or does it extend in the room? This gives you the floor pattern – is it straight, angular, curved or twisted?

Relationship of body parts

Relationship of the parts of the body to each other in the movement.

Relationship to each other

Are you near, apart, approaching, parting, surrounding, besides, in front of or behind?

“All body movements occur in different planes and around different axes. A plane is an imaginary flat surface running through the body. An axis is an imaginary line at right angles to the plane, about which the body rotates or spins.”
BBC bitesize “Planes and axes of movement – Movement analysis in sport”.

So much to take in, and think about, when you are just walking across the room trying to avoid obstacles or each other.

The big question:

How can we help our little ones with such an important aspect of development?

Don’t worry, as the key to promoting spatial awareness in children is to let them explore their surroundings but remember some may need some extra help.

As children start to crawl and then walk, they will hopefully be gaining an understanding of how many steps it takes to get to a specific object or location and how the object or location changes as they move.

Helping your little ones to develop spatial awareness

• Discuss the locations of where objects are for example where teddy is sleeping today
• Measure distances together
• Blowing bubbles together
• For older children, create an obstacle course as there are so many ways for them to develop their spatial awareness
• Use your setting to demonstrate the concepts of spatial awareness to children. Ask them to find items that are under, on or in something
• Sing action songs together for example “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” and the “Hokey Cokey”
• Why not role play being pirates with a treasure map? 
• Musical statues game. When the music stops, you direct which parts of their body have to be on the floor
• Be different animals. Walk sideways like a crab, wiggle like a jellyfish, run like a tiger or stomp like an elephant 

Why is it important?

It is important as spatial awareness allows us to be conscious of the things in our environment as well as our position relative to them. This ability is important for several reasons, such as:

• Location. Spatial awareness gives context to the location of an object. For example, knowing that a cup is on a table as opposed to under it
• Movement. Having spatial awareness can inform you of how people and objects move through the environment.
• Social. Spatial awareness can affect social functions like maintenance of personal space
• Reading and writing. A spatial understanding is needed for understanding sentence structure and grammar
• Mathematics. Some mathematical concepts also require spatial awareness. Examples include geometry and ordering or arranging numbers

Source: https://www.healthline.com/health/spatial-awareness 

References:

Franklin, Eric N. Dance imagery for technique and performance, Human Kinetics, 2014

BBC Bitesize, Movement analysis in Sport, Physical Education: Applied anatomy and physiology. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/znyb4wx 

Healthline Media, What’s important about spatial awareness?, https://www.healthline.com/health/spatial-awareness 

To learn more about Gina Bale, click here!

About the author:

Gina is a dynamic and accomplished educator with a rich background in movement and dance. Initially trained in ballet, she has dedicated the past 27 years to imparting her passion for movement and dance across various educational settings, ranging from mainstream to early years and SEND environments, as well as esteemed dance schools.

About the author:

Gina is a dynamic and accomplished educator with a rich background in movement and dance. Initially trained in ballet, she has dedicated the past 27 years to imparting her passion for movement and dance across various educational settings, ranging from mainstream to early years and SEND environments, as well as esteemed dance schools.

About the author:

Gina is a dynamic and accomplished educator with a rich background in movement and dance. Initially trained in ballet, she has dedicated the past 27 years to imparting her passion for movement and dance across various educational settings, ranging from mainstream to early years and SEND environments, as well as esteemed dance schools.