August 2022 Parenta magazine

Look out!
Do you know where your body is in space?
Do you have children that are 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?
Spatial awareness is knowing where you
are in relation to other objects and people.
Spatial awareness 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
Sensing 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
Sensing 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
Where 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. Use the positional
language of where teddy is sleeping.
Teddy is sleeping on top of, under,
beside or inside the bed
• Measure distances together. Make a
game of how many steps it takes to
walk to the teddy or the width of the
garden
• Blowing bubbles together. This is
a wonderful way to talk about the
movement and direction the bubbles
are going in as they float and land
• For older children, create an obstacle
course as there are so many ways
for them to develop their spatial
awareness as they step on, over,
and balance on objects. Make sure
your obstacle course has different
levels and items to crawl under/over/
through/behind and in front of
• Use your setting to demonstrate the
concepts of spatial awareness to
children. Ask them to find items that
are under, on or in something. Point
out items that are above your head on
the floor or on the wall
• 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? Together follow the
instructions or images, depending
on the age, to find the treasure. For
some extra fun, walk the plank, or tip
toe across a tightrope between pirate
ships (masking tape works well for
this) to avoid the sharks and a grumpy
parrot. Get the children to walk on,
inside and beside the lines
• Musical statues game. When the
music stops, you direct which parts
of their body have to be on the floor
– bottoms are a great one to start
with. Then you can develop it so that
when the music stops, they could find
a friend and stand elbow to elbow
or tummy to tummy. You and the
children decide
• Be different animals. Walk sideways
like a crab, wiggle like a jellyfish, run
like a tiger or stomp like an elephant –
don’t forget the sound effects
Why is it important?
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. This can help you
navigate your surroundings
• 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
Gina Bale
Gina’s background was originally
ballet, but she has spent the last 27
years teaching movement and dance
in mainstream, early years and SEND
settings as well as dance schools.
Whilst teaching, Gina found the time to
has create the ‘Hi-5’ dance programme
to run alongside the Australian Children’s
TV series and the Angelina Ballerina
Dance Academy for Hit Entertainment.
Her proudest achievement to date is her
baby Littlemagictrain. She created this
specifically to help children learn through
make-believe, music and movement.
One of the highlights has been seeing
Littlemagictrain delivered by Butlin’s
famous Redcoats with the gorgeous
‘Bonnie Bear’ on the Skyline stage.
Gina has qualifications of teaching
movement and dance from the Royal
Ballet School, Trinity College and Royal
Academy of Dance.
36 August 2022 | parenta.com
parenta.com | August 2022 37