Spatial awareness is the ability to understand your body’s position in relation to your surroundings. It can have an impact on everything from picking up a book to navigating social settings.
Visual spatial impairment is often an early symptom of neurodegenerative disease; Every day, we move through and interact with our surroundings. In order to accomplish this, spatial awareness is very important.
But what exactly is spatial awareness?
Spatial awareness refers to your ability to be aware of objects in space and your body’s position in relation to them. When we look at and interact with the visual world in all its detail, the process usually feels effortless, but in reality highly complex cognitive processes are occurring, enabling us to see, touch objects, navigate, and remember where we have been. Depending on our needs, we must quickly and accurately direct our attention to what is relevant while suppressing what is irrelevant, create brief or lasting visual representations in our minds, manipulate mental representations to guide our behavior, and find our way through familiar or new environments
…spatial cognition is important for successful everyday functioning. Elderly persons with declines in spatial functioning frequently report difficulties, such as feeling unsafe when driving, having trouble navigating new routes, and forgetting where they placed their keys or parked their car. These subtle declines seen in the healthy elderly are even more pronounced and have a greater impact on function in most types of neurodegenerative disease…
Signs of spatial awareness deficits
Indications that someone may have a deficit in spatial awareness include:
- difficulties pinpointing the location of something they see, hear, or feel
- issues navigating through their environment when walking or driving
- problems gauging distance from an object, such as when walking, driving, or reaching for things
- trouble following a route or reading a map
- confusion over directions like left versus right and up versus down
- difficulty with reading, writing, or mathematics
- poor recognition of personal space, which may result in either standing too close or too far away from others
- problems with coordination, which can include things like appearing clumsy, having trouble throwing or catching objects, or having difficulty getting dressed
How can I improve my spatial cognition?
Take time to move, breathe and play. As in children, various exercise sequences, dances , games or activities may help improve spatial awareness, such as yogalates, putting together puzzles, trying out visual memory games, and playing chess. Stay active. Exercise is good at any age.
What are some interventions for spatial awareness
So how can you work to promote spatial awareness in children? Try some of the following:
Yogalates increases body and spatial awareness.
As you become more aware of your breath, you also cultivate awareness of how your body feels in each pose. This enhanced mind-body connection helps promote spatial awareness and prevent
Yogalates sharpens concentration.
The ability to focus and concentrate is another important aspect of yoga and Pilates that often gets overlooked. By teaching how to remember exercise sequences and how to quiet the mind and focus on your breath, yogalates helps to sharpen your concentration. This improved focus can carry off the mat and into your everyday life, helping your cognitive abilities including being more mindful, disciplined, and efficient in everything you do.
Yoga centers attention.
Every moment on your yoga mat is an opportunity to ground yourself in the present and just be with your body and breath.
When you’re constantly bombarded with stimuli in life, it’s tough to focus on anything else. But when your mental chatter starts to gain momentum, yogalates can be a guide that brings you back to the moment.
Other activities for cognitive spatial Awareness
- Discuss distance. Talk about how far or how close things are from your current location. Measuring distances, such as through using steps, may also be helpful.
- Explore directions. Try giving your simple and more complex directions, such as “wave your left hand” or “walk forward and turn right at the bush.”
- Play games. Various games and activities can help sharpen and learn spatial awareness. Examples include playing completing puzzles, and games like runic cube, escape room games, chess, jigsaws , model making, lego.
Get active. Consider creating an obstacle course or mini golf. Walk a track in a park
See you the mat,
Lisa x
