Understanding Psychoeducational Testing Terms: Visual Spatial Skills
What is Visual Spatial Functioning?
Visual Spatial Skills are yet another common cognitive area assessed during your child’s comprehensive psychoeducational or neurodevelopmental evaluation. There are several cognitive areas assessed during a comprehensive evaluation, including your child’s fluid reasoning, verbal comprehension, processing speed, and short-term working memory skills. Visual Spatial Processing is not necessarily how well your child “sees” things (visual acuity) but rather their ability to identify, assess, and utilize visual information. Consider visual spatial skills your child’s “Lego” or “chart” brain. Visual Spatial thinking is the opposite of Verbal Comprehension (word/language skills) and captures your child’s ability to perceive and utilize non-language information, such as visual patterns/details, items in space (spatial configurations), and visual memory. Think of it as your child’s ability to tell where objects are in space, including their own body. Like other areas measured, visual spatial thinking is particularly relevant to many aspects of your child’s academic, socio-emotional, and everyday interactions. Visual Spatial Functioning captures your child’s ability to negotiate and think with visual or spatial information, such as charts, graphs, blocks, maps, and even athletic tasks! It’s greatest impact in school is with organization, sequencing, and any left-to-right shifting (e.g., reading, solving math problems, charting). Think of this as your child’s ability to not only utilize tangible (physical) items but also their ability to have general spatial awareness and orientation in their physical environment, such as sensing physical boundaries, transitioning between others, and negotiating small spaces. Visual Spatial Functioning is interesting, as it can greatly impact how your child demonstrates their knowledge in subjects like math, geometry, science, and reading, as well as their ability to engage with peers, perform gross motor tasks, and safely interact within their environment.
Here are a few ways to understand your child’s Visual Spatial performance scores, as well as the implications it may have on their functioning in home, school, and in the community.
What is the Visual Spatial Index on the WPPSI-IV, WISC-V, or WAIS-IV?
The Visual Spatial Index on the Wechsler Preschool & Primary Scale of Intelligence- Fourth Edition (WPPSI-V) , Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children- Fifth Edition (WISC-V), or Wechsler Adult Intelligent Scale-Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV) provides a snapshot of your child’s ability to evaluate and construct visual tasks, as well as understand visual-spatial relationships utilizing geometric designs. More specifically, it is your child’s ability to analyze visual patterns and recreate them with or without physical objects. Consider it your child’s “Lego” or “Engineering” skills. On these measures, your child’s efficiency can matter as they may be timed to see how quickly and accurately their brain can visually interpret and utilize visual-spatial information. If your child’s verbal comprehension skills are like in depth fact files on a computer, your child’s visual spatial skills are the non-verbal counterpart in charge of visual information. Of note, on the WAIS-IV, Visual Spatial skills are clustered into a larger “Perceptual Reasoning” Index.
What are Visual Spatial Skills?
In general, visual and spatial skills aid in your child’s “visual perception and space awareness” and are considered to be important automatic processes for a wide range of tasks, including anywhere from tying your shoes to reading a map. You can think of it as your child’s natural ability to work with visual or physical objects, as well as how well their brain can process visual information in space, regardless of how smart they are. While Fluid Reasoning taps into your child’s ability to efficiently problem solve information by analyzing visual or language-based patterns, Visual Spatial Functioning is much more about how well your child can perceive and process visual information. There are other factors that can influence your child’s performance on visual spatial tasks, including executive functioning skills (e.g., sustained attention, pacing), visual acuity, impulsivity, anxiety (perfectionism), fine motor skills during hands-on tasks, as well as other aspects of cognitive functions, including processing speed.
How does a psychologist assess Visual Spatial Skills?
Psychologists or trained examiners can use a range of tools to assess your child’s Visual Spatial Functioning. Best practice typically includes use of a combination of standardized tools. Some of the most common standardized tools used in the field include the Wechsler Intelligence Tests, such as the WPPSI-IV (ages 3-7), WISC-V (ages 6-16), and the WAIS-IV (ages 16-90), as well as the Woodcock Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities (WJ-IV Cog) and Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment (NEPSY-II). There are many factors involved in creating a testing plan, as well as the tools used, which are related to your examiners specialty, training, and the referral question. Visual spatial skills can also be examined in more depth through informal measures, school performance, clinical observation of a child in their social environments, during hands-on engagement with physical objects, as well as through use of other neuropsychological instruments. Visual spatial tasks typically require your child to complete a series of timed and untimed tasks that assess visual processing (breaking a large image into pieces, putting small pieces together to make a whole), constructing blocks or puzzles, or by having then view spatial configurations and recall target shapes. Some tasks are done in a hands-on manner, while others may require your child to view images in a booklet or on an iPad. Visual spatial tasks on many standardized measures typically assess your child’s perception, analysis, and recall when working with detailed visual images or shapes, thus it is important to consider your child’s visual acuity as this can affect performance. Most measures of visual spatial skills do begin with untimed demonstration and practice items to ensure that your child understands what is expected prior to the timed task. Comprehensive evaluations will typically compare your child’s performance on visual spatial tasks with academic measures of mathematics or problem solving to examine patterns.
What do Visual Spatial scores in the “Average Range” mean?
If your child performs in the Average range, this demonstrates evidence that they have developmentally typical abilities to analyze and work with visual information, as well as navigate their own body in space. They can sustain focus to perceive, create, and recall visually detailed information accurately and efficiently just like that of many other kid’s their age. These skills can contribute to their ability to engage and learn during a wide range of hands-on and spatial tasks in school, particularly when under timed pressure to perform. When visual spatial processing is consistent with their other strengths and cognitive skills, these children generally have the capacity to learn efficiently in school and can demonstrate their skills when engaging in both hands-on and visually-oriented tasks. They can also engage appropriately and safely in their environment by understanding body boundaries.
What do Visual Spatial scores above the “Average Range” mean?
High visual spatial performance scores typically encompass a child who can hyperfocus and excel in building, constructing, or spatial tasks. They are visual thinkers and enjoy creating and connecting with items in their environment (rather than talking or other language-heavy methods). They are likely recognized as completing building tasks with ease, such as Lego creations, following visual instructions on a map, as well as spatially orienting themselves during physical or athletic tasks (e.g., catching a baseball). Your child may show preference and enjoyment for these tasks, particularly at a young age. If your child has strong visual spatial skills, they are more efficient when thinking and learning in visual realms, particularly with hands-on tasks. Often, high visual spatial thinkers can hyperfocus and have a strong desire to complete projects. If stopped prior to full completion, they may become frustrated or need time to transition. There is a sense of preference for more black-and-white construction and an ability to follow through. They typically excel during hands-on tasks and any realm where they can create/build. They may also show strengths in mathematics, geometry, and other physical ways to demonstrate their skills.
What do Visual Spatial scores below the “Average Range” mean?
Lower visual spatial skills indicate difficulties with your child’s visual processing and concept of body in space. This may encompass a child who may struggle with analyzing visual details, organizing/sequencing, left/right confusion, body boundaries, as well as emotional discomfort with unanticipated changes in routines. Lower skills in this area can also lead to difficulties with flexible thinking, as well as pacing themselves during tasks with which their brain must process visual or spatial details. This can be a child who, without skill building, may struggle to read, analyze, or orient themselves in physical environments, particularly when details matter (e.g., completing a puzzle, waiting in line behind a peer). While it does not mean your child cannot see or perceive visual details, your child likely needs support with visually oriented tasks or tasks with which require appropriate pacing, despite their intelligence or capability. This can include reading (e.g., pacing with words left/right on a page), constructing a prototype of a plan, or when needing to appropriately pause when throwing a ball with a peer. Since visual spatial skills are highly important in school settings, they may need additional skill building, support, or accommodations when negotiating visual-spatial materials, such as maps, charts, or graphs, as well as when navigating the spatial demands during mathematics concepts and procedures (e.g., place value, sequence of multi-step division, etc.). There can be many factors that influence visual spatial functioning performance other than pure weaknesses in this area, including testing error, underlying neurodevelopmental weaknesses, health concerns (stroke, pre/post natal health complications, concussions), fine motor weaknesses, difficulty with performing under timed pressure, anxiety, and other cultural implications/factors. Therefore, it is important to talk more in-depth with the examiner.
Have questions or looking to learn more information? Contact Dr. Bobal today!