Puzzles, blocks and the spatial skills behind maths and science

EduTrend Contents · G4C Cognitive · Evidence: Strong for training effects; correlational for puzzle play

Turning a jigsaw piece in your head, reading a map or imagining a folded box: these spatial skills predict success in maths, science and engineering. The good news is that they improve with practice.

Spatial thinking means understanding where things are, how they fit together and how they change when they move, turn or fold. Children use it when they build with blocks, complete a puzzle or give directions.

What the research says

Spatial skills respond to practice. David Uttal and colleagues combined 217 training studies. The average improvement was moderate (an effect size of about 0.47), it lasted over time, and it spread to spatial tasks that were not trained. That is unusual: many kinds of "brain training" only improve the exact task practised.

Puzzle play is linked to better spatial skills. Susan Levine's team at the University of Chicago observed 53 families at home from when children were about 2 until they were nearly 4. Children who played with puzzles more often were better at 4½ at tasks where they had to imagine shapes moving and rotating. This was an observational study, so it cannot prove that puzzles caused the difference, but it fits the training evidence. The team also noticed that boys tended to get harder puzzles and more spatial talk from parents than girls did.

How to encourage spatial thinking

• Offer puzzles, blocks and construction toys to girls and boys equally.

• Use spatial words: above, below, beside, rotate, flip, corner, edge, curved.

• Increase the challenge slowly: more pieces, hide the box picture, copy a model from memory.

• Draw and use maps of the bedroom, the classroom or the route to school.

Try this tomorrow. Fold a square of paper in half twice and punch one hole through all the layers. Before unfolding, ask the child to draw where the holes will be. Then unfold and check. Try a diagonal fold next.

Related resource: G4C-110 Thinking Games has five spatial games, including a paper tangram, Copy My Build and Treasure Map. Coming soon to EduStore; subscribe to the newsletter to hear when it opens.

Sources / Further reading

• Uttal, D. H., et al. (2013). The malleability of spatial skills: A meta-analysis of training studies. Psychological Bulletin, 139(2), 352-402. Link

• Levine, S. C., Ratliff, K. R., Huttenlocher, J., & Cannon, J. (2012). Early puzzle play: A predictor of preschoolers' spatial transformation skill. Developmental Psychology, 48(2), 530-542. Link