Visual spatial orientation skills is the awareness of one’s left and right side, their position in space in relation to other objects as well as the location of objects relative to each other. This skill is normally developed through the child’s interaction with their environment and can be divided into bilateral integration, laterality and directionality.
- Bilateral integration is the awareness of both sides of the body and being able to use both sides separately and together in unilateral and bilateral combinations.
- Laterality is the knowledge of one’s internal representation of their right and left.
- Directionality is their external understanding of other people/objects right and left.
Visual spatial skills are used in the classroom as soon as the child starts school. Information presented usually has a direction—that is, they start from one side for reading and writing and work in the same direction (left to right). When they write in a book—it’s also top to bottom.
The letters and words they learn can have different orientations (b,d,p,q, was/saw) making it difficult for them to discriminate the differences. A smart board or black board is traditionally used to present information, and spatial skills are used to find their place or the required information.
