Can spatial skills be learned?

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‍Good news! Spatial skills are easily trainable. While people used to believe that spatial reasoning was an innate intelligence, research in recent decades has proven this is far from the truth. Spatial skills are learned, and you can learn them at any age. In fact, the lowest performers tend to see the largest gains from spatial training, and many can make significant progress in just a few hours of training. Moreover, the skills don't typically erode after training ends, and they even transfer to spatial skills that weren't directly taught.

‍What are the benefits of spatial training?

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‍1. It can improve STEM grades

‍Spatial training is a highly effective strategy for improving students' success in STEM. It has been demonstrated to increase students' STEM GPAs and grades in engineering, physics, computer science, chemistry, and mathematics. It is especially effective for improving student performance in Engineering Problem Solving and Analysis.

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‍2. It may improve standardized test scores

‍Students' spatial ability predicts their SAT-M math scores, and it is a significant predictor of math achievement. This holds true even after researchers control for general intelligence, working memory, and processing speed.

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‍3. It could make you or your child more creative, innovative, and successful

‍‍Research shows that students' spatial aptitude at 13 forecasts their creativity, scholarly achievement, and patents in STEM over 30 years later. This relation is distinct from the students' mathematical and verbal capabilities.

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‍4. It might improve their sports performance

‍People with strong spatial reasoning typically have enhanced performance in spatially-intensive sports such as soccer, volleyball, wrestling, gymnastics, tennis. etc. Participating in spatially-intensive sports has been demonstrated to improve spatial ability. However, research examining whether the reverse is true is lacking.

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‍5. It can bolster everyday life skills and may even protect against dementia

‍Spatial skills are important for many common activities, from navigating around town, to building IKEA furniture or fixing a bike. Spatial reasoning is important at every stage of life. As individuals age, spatial cognition can decline. A loss in spatial navigation may be the earliest warning of dementia's onset, appearing years or even decades before other symptoms emerge. When spatial reasoning diminishes below a certain threshold, individuals lose their navigational ability and therefore, their autonomy. Spatial training could bolster patient's abilities, thus acting as protection against cognitive decline.

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Overall, spatial training is a powerful strategy to improve performance in STEM classes and careers, all while improving quality of life.

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A lot of people believe that spatial intelligence is a fixed quantity, that you either have good spatial skills or you don't, but that's simply not true

— Dr. Sheryl Sorby, an engineering professor at the University of Cincinnati and pioneering researcher in spatial reasoning and gender