Visual-Spatial Thinking - Lynn Hellerstein

1 Chapter 20. Visual-Spatial ThinkingTHE THEORETICAL BASIS OFVISUAL-COGNITIVE INTELLIGENCEJean Piaget and Hans Furth subdividedintelligence into three categories: (1) biolog-ical intelligence (Furth s term), (2) sensori-motor intelligence, and (3) operationalintelligence (Furth, 1986).1 Biological intelli-gence is prewired in utero and is manifestafter birth in the form of developmentalreflexes. Sensorimotor intelligence can bereferred to as action knowing, and contin-ues throughout adult life. When Piaget dis-covered object permanence (which occursdevelopmentally in a child around 2 years ofage and involves the ability to do things at amental level in the child s head ratherthan solely to know them through physicalaction), he became more fascinated andinvolved with what he termed operationalintelligence.

2 Although Piaget delved very lit-tle into sensorimotor intelligence beyondobject permanence, he did not imply that sen-sorimotor intelligence stopped at object per-manence. Operational intelligence can bedescribed as reasoning or Thinking by a child,which usually starts around age 2 andmatures around ages 5 to 7, but continues tobe embellished throughout these three categories, Furth and Iadded a fourth body and sense Thinking todescribe sensorimotor development in a childbetween the ages of approximately 2 and 7years of age (Furth & Wachs, 1974).Extending Piaget s theory from object perma-nence through concrete operations the peri-od when a person can use reasoning to tapsensorimotor intelligence the term describesthe child s ability to apply reasoning to senso-rimotor experiences once the child can men-tally manipulate his or her visual -spatialworld.

3 During this period, the child s actionknowing can be enhanced by reasoning oroperatory s theory can be applied to all indi-viduals, impaired or nonimpaired. Its appli-cation includes the autistic spectrum, frompervasive developmental disorder (PDD) tosevere autism, as well as attention deficit dis-order (ADD) and the more common learningdisabilities (LD) and dyslexia (Wachs, 1980,Vol. 2, pp. 51-78). In my research on theapplication of Piagetian theory, I have workedwith children from Europe, Asia, and Northand South America, as well as with manyindigenous groups Africans, South AmericanIndians, Bedouins, Aborigines, Eskimos,Native Americans, mestizos, and hill tribes inThailand with similar results on sensorimo-tor and body and sense Thinking tasks. 51720 Visual-Spatial ThinkingHarry Wachs, term operational describes intelligence, where-as the act of doing something operational is describedas operatory.

4 ICDL Clinical Practice GuidelinesThe word intelligence is often misusedin common speech, as in statements like Scott is intelligent or Cathy is not veryintelligent. In fact, intelligent should notbe used to describe a person, but rather whata person does or is involved in. Scott isdoing this intelligently would be a better useof the chapter deals with visual and spatialintelligence and spans the child s develop-ment from birth to approximately age 7. Allthe developmental visual -cognitive hallmarksare stages of growth and should not be mis-construed as age-related norms (Wachs &Vaughn, 1977). Some children with specialneeds have difficulty developing intellectual-ly, even up to the level of an average 7-year-old. A negative outcome, however, should notbe assumed, as I have seen many childrendevelop far beyond their prognoses.

5 A dis-torted body does not necessarily imply a dis-torted and I have coordinated our work tofollow the general principles of Piaget s con-structivist theory in both diagnosis and inter-vention. For all children, especially thosewith special needs, we assign tasks chosenfrom a repertoire of probes and interventionsdesigned to diagnose, elicit, and foster cogni-tive understanding. All our probes and inter-ventions are hierarchically based. They arenot designed solely to achieve the rightanswer from the child, but rather to lead thechild to construct cognitive understanding bydevelopmentally raising or lowering thedemands of the following brief outline lays out ourdevelopmental approach for developing thevisual- spatial aspects of body and senseintelligence:I. General Movement reflexes ( , obligatory arm move-ments when head or feet move) Mental map of body ( , awarenessof joints and body dimensions) Integration of body sections ( ,creeping-crawling, angels in thesnow ) Integration of body axes ( , rolling,bimanual circles on chalkboard) Rhythm ( , moving or tapping bodyparts to the accompaniment of ametronome) Coordinated actions ( , skipping,hopping, jumping rope)II.

6 Discriminative Movement Fingers ( , crumpling or tearingpaper) Eyes ( , focusing, tracking, fixatingon an object) Lip, tongue, and vocal chords ( ,tongue motility, making funny faces,gargling)III. visual ( , household items, blocks,pegs) Coincident (reconstructing a givenmodel with some part of each blocktouching other blocks) Separated (matching items spreadapart) Negative space (placing items inspaces purposely not filled in) Recalling (reconstructing a givenmodel in a distant part of the room)B. Transposition(coordinated with bodyaxes) Horizontal (toward and away) Vertical (right and left) Transverse (rotations)5182In this context, see Furth, H. (1991). Life s essential:The story of mind over body. Human Development,for a discussion of the 1989 memoirs of 20. Visual-Spatial Thinking Analysis (determining how a givendesign was transposed) Positions (constructing from a dif-ferent viewpoint; that is, north,south, northeast, etc.)

7 Vision is another misused word. A par-ent who says, My child s vision is 20/20, really should be saying, My child s sightis20/20. The difference is tremendous. Welook with our eyes (looking); we see with ourbrains (sight); and we understand with ourminds (vision). Here is where Piagetian theo-ry is so valuable. Piaget s theory of construc-tivism holds that knowledge is not neurallyconstructed; instead, neural connections arebuilt through mental constructs. In otherwords, the retina and the brain are used toconstruct, not evoke, new knowledge. Piaget s theory of sensorimotor intelligencelays the foundation for visual intelligence. Thedetermining factor for visual intelligence is notwhat passes through the eye but rather what aperson can understand from a particular visualexperience and eventually coordinate with otheraspects of body and sense Thinking .

8 Thus, a par-tially sighted child may have well-developedvisual intelligence and a child with acute 20/20sight may have poorly developed visual intelli-gence. The foundation for visual intelligence isdeveloped through sensorimotor intelligence inthe first few years of a child s life, even duringthe neonatal period when the child is nonmo-bile. This does not imply that visual intelligencecannot be developed in the movement-impairedchild, but rather that the more developed thechild s movement (or sensorimotor) intelli-gence, the better the opportunity for the child todevelop visual intelligence. In addition, even inthe nonmotorically impaired child, a lack ofmovement intelligence development could con-fuse and inhibit the development of visual intel-ligence. My experience has shown that mostchildren with cerebral palsy have inadequatevisual intelligence, and also that many childrenwith inadequate visual intelligence have inade-quate movement intelligence, despite beingneurologically intact (Fraiberg, 1977).

9 DEVELOPMENTAL REFLEXESFor biological intelligence, Furth uses thephrase biological knowledge to describe theintelligence the child is born with. Modernneuroscientists refer to this knowledge as pre-wiring, observable in the many devel-opmental reflexes in a healthy, intact newborn(Goddard, 1996). Clinical experience hasshown that the existence of these primitivereflexes can inhibit sensorimotor function andthat removal of the reflex obligatory respons-es actually can aid the efficiency of such sen-sorimotor functions as ocular motility andgeneral body motility. British neuropsychologist Peter Blythehas made an exhaustive study on the diagno-sis and treatment of such reflexes sustainedbeyond their useful years (Blythe, 1990; per-sonal communications with H. Wachs, 1995-1999). His work shows that children whoretain primitive reflexes often show the fol-lowing dysfunctional traits (this list is not all-inclusive and does not imply that primitivereflexes are the sole factors involved): Rigidity of movement Poor handwriting Gaps in athletic performance, especiallyin throwing or catching Clumsiness Bumping into things Dis-coordination Poor ocular tracking Poor rhythm Difficulty in showing usual expectedresponse to intervention proceduresThough I have not been trained inBlythe s methods, I have incorporated three519 ICDL Clinical Practice Guidelines520 Tables 1A.

10 primitive reflexes Adopted intoVision and Conceptual Development TheoryTable 1A. FeetObserved DiagnosticClinical Picture,Clinical Picture,ReflexProcedureif Sustainedif Reabsorded FEET (exact originstill undetermined,possibly caused bythe amphibian,labyrinthine, orMoro reflex) Stand erect, handshanging by feet inward in pigeon-toed position, then out-ward in CharleyChaplin position. With feet pointing inward, thechild thrusts elbows and armsbackward in scarecrow posi-tion, hands rotated with palmsfacing away from body. Withfeet pointing outward, the childmoves elbows toward body androtates hands so that palms faceforward. Thus any movement offeet triggers an obligatorymovement of arms. This couldbe very confusing and disturb-ing, especially to an alreadyconfused child does notmove arms in eitherfeet position, evenwhen marching inplace.