What is Spatial Skill?

Lately Mama sedar yang Miya seems to enjoy all “Baby Einstein” videos. Then Papa Miya asked, “Apa best video tu? Apa bagus sgt video tu? Puppets dia cam mabuk aje? Ada educational stuff ke in it?”....

Then Mama pun terpikir..Hmm, apa aku nak jawab kat laki aku ni? So I said “ It’ s the classical music! It stimulates the brain..”

Time nak menjawab tu, mmg la mulut ku pantas aje come up with alasan. Tapi I do have doubts, takkan la music aje dapat buat anak tu bijak.

Later on I did my studies and found that it is true that some of these music pathways actually affect the way we think. The music seems to prime our brains for certain kinds of thinking and also kids as young as 3months boleh recongnize the tones, notes counts, spacings, gaps. The structural of each tune, tones and gaps makes the brain active.

After listening to classical music, adults can do certain spatial tasks more quickly, such as putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Listening to classical music can improve our spatial reasoning, at least for a short time. And learning to play an instrument may have an even longer effect on certain thinking skills.

As for children, researchers say that music is linked to the development of spatial thinking in our children. Children who have good spatial skills are often strong in mathematics.

However, the effect is not long lasting. Music alone is not enough. It was founded that the effect will fade in time.

I guess, classical music doesn’t help our kid to be a Math genius, but it will enhance the genius in them. Tak caye? Pegi google sendiri about this fact.

What matters is for us to develop and sharpen your kid’s spatial skills.

What does it mean to have "spatial ability"? And how can parents help it to develop?

Spatial ability is the ability to see and think about the positions of objects in space. When you drive a car or walk down the street, you use your awareness of the space around you to help you avoid objects and to find your way.

Reading maps, doing puzzles and understanding diagrams are all activities that involve spatial skill. Many technology-related jobs, such as designing computer hardware or reading medical X-rays, require the ability to understand space.

Your baby begins to use spatial reasoning right from birth, as she begins to experience size and distance of objects. Example- Anak sedar yang Mom tu besar bila dekat dgn dia, but kecil bila dia jauh.

This ability continues to develop until around age 10. Concepts that your toddler is learning about space, such as near and far, provide a foundation for later development.

Here are some activities to help your toddler's spatial skills grow:

1. Tidy up together. When your child helps tidy up, she is learning more than how to please you by keeping things neat. Putting away toys and clothes means learning to remember the places where they go, giving your child a chance to exercise her memory for object locations.
2. Play hiding games. You thought it was all fun, but a game of hide-and-seek can help develop spatial memory. After all, there are only so many places around to hide in. Which one will it be this time? You can vary the game by playing "hide the doll" (or other small toy). Searching for hidden objects helps your child's brain learn to process information about spatial locations.
3. Shape stick-on. Make a shape collage together by gluing cutouts of common shapes such as circles, triangles or squares onto a paper. While you are making interesting patterns, you have a chance to talk to your child about the names of the shapes. You might even talk about how putting shapes together leads to new shapes. For example, two triangles can fit together to make a square.
4. Action songs. Listening to music is fun and it stimulates brain development. But you can also use music to practice learning about spatial concepts. Try out some favorite action songs, such as "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes", "Where is Thumbkin", “If you’re happy & you know it” and “Put your finger in the Air”.

So, classical music does stimulate the brain but it’s the practise of the spatial skills that counts. Jadinya, kalau mothers wants their kids to be good in Math, we can put on the classical music while we do some of the activities I listed earlier. Then later on when our kids dah mula mengira, we put on the classical music while dia buat latihan Math. What do you think of my suggestions?