Relations between the children's spatial thinking and their linguistic and communicative skills

Abstract

In this review we attempt to indicate the relations between the level of children's spatial competence and their linguistic skills (producing texts, connected with a description of a picture and giving oral instructions).

After introducing theoretical findings connected with the development of competences we present our own research among children aged 5-10. To show the dependencies between the spatial and linguistic competence of the children we conducted two quasi-experiments. The first task for the children involved producing a description of the arrangement of bricks presented in a picture. In the second one the children were to produce oral instructions which allowed the interlocutor to build an arrangement of Lego bricks (dynamic system). We begin the presentation of the research results by analyzing the linguistic expressions used by the pupils to describe the spatial relations in the static description, and then we provide the analysis of the noticed dependencies between the spatial and the linguistic (text-producing) competences. We follow the same order during the analysis of the texts produced while children's giving instructions in a dynamic situation. Conclusions from the conducted research confirm the existence of significant dependencies between the spatial competence and the linguistic skill (including creating texts) of children.