Children's Preferential Modes of Spatial Communication

Abstract

A group of lower primary children (age from 8-9 years old) was given a task to present spatial information to communicate with their peers about wayfinding to their school from the nearby mass transit railway station. The children were left with their own preferential choice to decide what mode of spatial communication was used to do the task. Different frameworks of cartographic analysis were used to understand the mapping quality of such spatial communication if children opted to draw map to show the spatial information. Selected children from distinctive categories were interviewed to further illuminate their spatial consideration when drawing the map to complete the task. The outcome of this study is hoped to provide insight to teachers the venue to understand their children better in terms of their giftedness in spatial and visual ability. Such understanding enables teachers to better prepare for meaningful and effective teaching in spatial related topics and issues.