What Does Spatial Awareness Mean?

Generally speaking, spatial awareness is the recognition of the distance between objects.  More specifically, though, the term "spatial awareness” refers to a person’s ability to judge the location of themselves in relation to the objects around them and is commonly used in reference to stages of child development.

Briefly, the first stage of child development is commonly known as Sensorimotor.  In this stage, small infants, for example, will recognize that they can manipulate in object with their hands and feet.  They will also recognize things according to what they smell or see and can reason, to a degree, regarding cause and effect relationships, and object permanence is a major benchmark during this stage.

The second stage is sometimes known as the Preoperational stage.  In this stage, children are learning to identify specific groups of things like "animals” or "colors.”  This is why (once they have formed words) they might call all women "mama.”  It is during this stage that children begin to recognize their spatial awareness, that is to say their placement in relation to the things around them.

Encouraging the development of spatial awareness is very important because it helps you to deduce things like distance, rate of speed, comparative side, and other things necessary for daily activities like driving.  Without spatial awareness, you will probably be clumsier since you have trouble analyzing how far down the next step is on the stairs, for example.  Obviously, proficiency with spatial awareness, then, affects motor skills overall, and is therefore extremely important.