Spatial Orientation: Foundations

When operating at the Spatial Orientation: Foundations developmental level the child:

Use the earliest of two types of cognitive systems for spatial orientation—knowing where you are and how you can get around in the world.

1. Response Learning: Based on their own position, babies build a pattern of movements (e.g., sitting in their high-chair, they move their head or look to the left where their food is prepared).

2. Cue learning: Children use things around them as landmarks to help them remember important objects (e.g., a child might get excited to play with toy when they see their play box). As they explore their enviornment, they learn new landmarks that help them find their way in wider spaces.

Activities

You may see this:

Other Examples:

In Response Learning, an infant may incorrectly turn to the right, where a toy was previously found, after a caregiver who is holding her turns so that the toy is now on the child's left.
In Cue Learning, a seven-month-old remembers which of two containers holds a ball, even after a minute of doing something else.

Help your student become a(n) Spatial Orientation: Foundations

Discussions about where things are ("Where's the light?") activate the self-based system, if the child just woke up and sat up and knows which direction the light is from where they are sitting. Discussion of landmarks ("Do you want teddy?") activate the external-based system; for example, when the teddy bear is in a backpack in the same room. Mobility is critical to build cue learning and building foundtions for frameworks, because chiildren atttend to objects such as larger landmarks farther way. Similarly, wider spaces and active, independent exploration are key.