The 7th Stage Of Body Awareness - Directionality And Directional Discrimination

Written by Gizelle Kruger and Marene Jooste

Welcome back to our series of blog posts about body awareness! Our previous blog discussed midline crossing and how limited and restricted our movements would be if we could not cross this line. We also discuss the scholastic problems a child may experience if this was the case.

Fortunately, we were wonderfully made by our Creator - with the ability to cross our midline. Even though some children may initially find it difficult to cross their midline, they can eventually do so with the necessary help. For more information and ideas on this topic, please visit our previous blog.

Before we move on to today's topic, let us quickly recap the different stages of developing good body awareness. Remember, these stages are all essential building blocks for future academic success in the classroom.

Body awareness can be separated or divided into 7 important building blocks:

1. Body image

2. Body concept

3. Body schema

4. Laterality

5. Lateral preference

6. Midline crossing

7. Directionality and directional discrimination

Directionality

One of our previous blogs discussed a child's internal awareness of both the left and right sides of their bodies and how these sides work together or in opposition to one another. This is called laterality.

Once a child has developed a well-defined sense of laterality and knowledge of their body, he can start to build a mental map of direction. During this important developmental step, the young child transfers his knowledge of the right and left sides of his body into space. This important step is called directionality.

Why Is Directionality Important?

Directionality is part of our everyday life. It impacts us daily in one way or another. Directionality helps us to find where we have parked our car in a parking lot when we have been to a shopping centre. To know where your car is, to correctly locate the stores in the shopping centre, or to find your favourite snack at Woolworths, is important. Our ability to follow Google maps is also dependent on following directions.

The same goes for little children. They need to constantly react to commands involving direction. "Stand behind your table, in front of your friend, or beside the teacher's chair". Just stop and think a moment about the various directional terms that are part of our lives. For example: left, right, top, bottom, above, below, besides, under, over, between, though and behind.

That being said, directionality mainly involves three references namely, ‘right and left’, ‘up and down’, and ‘before and behind' or 'forward and back’. A child must first learn to apply these directions or references in relation to his own body. Only after he has learned to do this, can he start to project this knowledge into a "3D" space onto other objects.

When Does Directionality Start To Develop?

Because children are initially very egocentric, they first relate to all people and objects around them from this perspective. In other words, because they are the centre of their own universe, they will first relate to people and objects in relation to their own bodies.

This is called 'egocentric localization' and is a gradual process that usually occurs between the ages of 6 and 8. A child will begin to make his own internal references such as, “The cat is in front of me” or “Dad is to my left”.

Many times, we see a preschool child reading a book upside down. Remember, most of the time a preschool child has not yet learned how to read a page or even which side of the book is the front versus the back or the top versus the bottom. This is because the bridge between laterality and directionality is still being developed.

After this stage, a child should progress to the ability to refer to objects and people in relation to each other. This is called 'objective localization' or 'directional discrimination'. The child may then observe that “The cat is under the couch” or “Mary is standing behind the tree”.

Directional Discrimination

As mentioned, directionality is used in a 3D environment involving people and objects. Directional discrimination takes it one step further and involves how we apply directionality onto paper (2D environment).

In most Western countries, you read from the left to the right and from the top to the bottom. This is the basis for both reading and writing. The ability to align words neatly on a page, place numbers in columns, properly space words and read sentences from left to right are all directly impacted by discriminating between various directions.

Directional discrimination also plays a crucial role in the formation of letters such a 'p', 'q', 'b' and 'd'. Just think of it for a moment. A child should know where to place the vertical mark in relation to the circle so that he can form these letters. He should also know in which direction each letter is facing. Thus, directional discrimination plays an important part in the visual-perceptual skills of a child.

Directional discrimination depends heavily on a firm knowledge of laterality and directionality. Thus, if proper directionality is not in place, the child will battle with directional discrimination.

Now that you have a better understanding of directionality and directional discrimination, how do you know if a child has a problem with these concepts? Let's look at signs and symptoms at home and in the classroom that can help you identify possible difficulties that a child may experience.

Signs And Symptoms Of Difficulties

Screening for directional difficulties can be done through observation. These difficulties can best be seen during movement activities in children. Children with directional difficulties are usually the ones who cannot seem to stay in step with the rest of their peers.

• They find balance, spatial awareness and visual perception activities challenging as it is directly related to one’s sense of direction in space.

• They have difficulty with the direction of objects in relation to themselves, such as “to my left” or “behind me”.

• Many times, these children are accused of not paying attention or listening to the instructions given. This is because they simply do not know what is expected of them when it comes to direction.

• They may get quickly overwhelmed.

• It may be a challenge for them to get from one place to another in school. Getting from their class to the administration office or sports field may be confusing as they need to "take a right and then a left" to get there.

• Directionality also has a direct impact on reading comprehension skills and the ability to read fluently (Bonnie Terry Learning).

Children with directional discrimination problems are mostly identified in the academic phase of their lives. These children show the following signs and symptoms:

• They may find it difficult to follow directional instructions on writing tasks, for example: “Write your name and surname in the top right corner of the page” or “Start in the middle of the page”.

• They may confused certain numbers such as 13 and 31 or or letters such as 'p', 'q', 'b', and 'd'. These numbers and letters look similar except for the rounded part facing different directions.

• Copying from the blackboard can be very challenging for these children and will be more difficult if a child is left-handed. Left-handed children with a directional discrimination problem, tend to copy the teachers’ writing exactly like they see it - from the midline to the outside. This usually results in reversals of letters.

• Children may write words from the right to the left or even backward.

• As mentioned before, English is meant to be read from the left to the right and from the top to the bottom. Children with a directional discrimination problem will find simple words like ‘bat’ difficult to read. They might read the word from right to left as ‘tab’ or the word ‘mom’ might be read ‘wow’. In severe cases, the directional discrimination problems are called dyslexia, dyspraxia or dysgraphia.

• All the above frustrations can hamper children from being successful in learning academic material and may cause them to become frustrated. They may even resort to inappropriate behaviours.

Informal Assessment

There are a few ways in which you can informally assess directionality and directional discrimination. Follow the various steps of assessment below to get a baseline of what your child can do. Remember to assess your child in a quiet environment to minimize any distractions that may give you a skew impression of your child's abilities. From there, it is easier to seek the necessary professional intervention to help your child with this aspect of their development.

Please take note: the following tests are only guidelines. Should you be concerned about your child's development in any way, it is best to seek the help of a professional such as a Kinderkineticist, Occupational therapist or Educational Psychologist who can fully assess your child and determine the underlying aspects that may require more attention.

1. Before assessing directionality, first ensure that your child has established dominance and that he can cross his midline. In other words, all other building blocks with regard to body awareness should be in place. Then you can go ahead to ask your child (4 years and older) to ‘stand on a chair’, ‘stand next to a chair’, ‘stand in front of the chair’, ‘stand on top of a chair’, ‘stand behind a chair’ or ‘stand inside a chair/box’.

See if he understands direction in general and how he experiences his own body in relation to other objects. He should be able to recognize and execute most of the directions quickly and automatically without thinking about the instructions too long.

2. Between 5 - 7 years of age, your child should be able to show you where 'left' and 'right' is when it comes to his own body. "Show me where your right hand, left foot or right ear is". After he has followed your instructions, you can ask him to put his ‘right hand on his left shoulder’ or his ‘left hand on his right ear’. Note how your child is following your directions. (As mentioned previously, he needs to have all the building blocks in place before he can be assessed on this aspect of directionality).

The next step would be for your child to show you how he stands on the ‘right side of the chair’ or the ‘left side of the table’. For an older child, you can ask to place his ‘right hand on the left side of the chair’ or his ‘left foot on the right side of the table’. Take note that everything is still about your child and how his body relates to other objects around him when it comes to direction.

3. Another method is to ask your child (older than 6 years of age) to stand in front of you and watch you. Now raise your right hand. Ask your child which hand (left or right) you have raised. Continue to lift your left foot. Repeat this a few times with other parts of your body or physically point to a part of your body. Your child has to say - without hesitation - which side of your body (left or right) you have moved, raised or pointed to.

Now switch the test and ask your child to show you where your right eye, left hand, right foot or left ear is. Again, note whether he can easily and automatically name the correct side of your body, or whether he has to stop and think about the answer.

You can adjust the tests according to your child's execution abilities and/or personality. If your child is shy or does not like to speak, ask him to only point to the correct side of your body. If he prefers to be in his own space, let him only mention the correct sides. That being said, it is always best to use both methods as far as possible.

4. For children older than 7 years of age, you can now start to assess directional discrimination. Assess this aspect on a concrete level (3D). To do this, place two different colored pencils (red and blue) on a table. Ask your child to move the red pencil to the correct place. Ask: ‘Place the red pencil to the right of the blue pencil’, ‘above the blue pencil’, ‘to the left of blue the blue pencil’ and ‘below the blue pencil’.

Do not swop between the colors of the pencils when you assess discrimination. If you are going to change the colors of the pencils all the time and the child is battling with auditory processing skills, he may find the test too difficult - not because of directional discrimination, but because of poor listening skills. Thus, stick to one color pencil that he must move.

In the next phase of this assessment, you as the adult will have to place the pencils in all the different directions. Then go ahead and ask your child to name the different positions of the red pencil as you place it in relation to the blue pencil. He should answer 'It is to the right of blue pencil', ‘to the left of the blue pencil’, etc.

5. Once you have assessed your child's directional discrimination on a concrete level (3D), you can move on to assess his knowledge on a 2D level. For this, you can use an Arrow Chart like the one below. Explain to your child that the various arrows are pointing in different directions. He must then start from the top left to identify and say whether the arrow is pointing up, down, left or right.

6. Following the Arrow Chart test, you can now go on to show your child a picture of people being active or participating in a sport. Alternatively, you can draw your own pictures. Ask questions about the various actions that the people demonstrate in the pictures and which side of their bodies they are using to perform the actions. Your child should answer and mention that "this man is waving with his right hand", "kicking a ball with his left foot", "closing his left eye with his right hand", etc.

7. Another way of assessing your child's directional discrimination, is to ask him to fold an A4 paper in 4 quarters. For this, he can first fold the paper horizontally in half and then vertically in half. Now ask your child to follow your instructions and write down specific numbers, shapes or letters in each quarter of the paper. (If your child can already write, ask numbers or words as this can help you spot reversals quickly).

An example of your instructions:

• Write all the numbers from 1 - 10 on the top left corner of the paper.

• Write "The old big dog is not a pig" in the lower right corner of the paper.

• Write your name in the lower left corner of the paper.

• Draw a star in the top right corner of the paper.

If your child is struggling with writing letters of numbers, you can ask him to draw shapes in all the different squares of the paper by following your instructions. Note your child's overall directional discrimination on paper (2D level).

8. Finally, you can ask your child (8 years and older) to recognize a 'p', 'b', 'd' and 'q'. He should only point to the paper and indicate the correct letter that you are mentioning. Then he can continue to read a line of these letters in various order and name them correctly. The last step would be for him to write the correct letter that you are asking for.

It is important to take note that your child must be able to read and know all the sounds of the alphabet before you can perform this assessment.

Please remember that it is still normal for a Grade 2 child to make reversals now and again when writing a 'p', 'b', 'd' and 'q'. The same applies to reversals when it comes to numbers like a '6' and a '9' or a '4' and a '7'. However, a Grade 3 child should no longer have reversals. If so, he should undergo a full visual assessment (including binocular visual skills) by an optometrist and be formally assessed for dyslexia. All other building blocks related to body awareness should also be evaluated by a professional.

How To Improve A Child's Directionality?

A child with directionality problems often finds balance, spatial awareness and visual perception skills challenging. Thus, make sure to choose activities that also incorporate these aspects to improve a child's directionality.

Activities that increase directional awareness are typically activities where children need to move their bodies up, down, around, under or in specific directions through space. This helps a child to sense which way is appropriate to move so that he can complete a task. It also helps a child to experience where other people and objects must move to be successful in these challenges (Cheatum and Hammond).

Activities To Build Directionality

Young children can participate in the following activities to help them build a strong sense of direction:

• Do the Hokey-Pokey.

• Create agility games with cones.

• Dance to music with directional cues.

• Play Simon Says and incorporate different directions in the movements.

• Do obstacle courses where the child moves in all directions.

• Play sports like rugby or soccer, where you need to change direction all the time.

Older children can participate in the following activities to help them build a strong sense of directional discrimination:

• Map fun: Have the child write directions to a location by looking at a map.

• Let the child learn to read the time on self-made clocks.

• Play crossword puzzles.

• Play blindfold games with a partner. One friend is blindfolded and gets guided by the other friend. They can move through an obstacle course or play a sport.

In the book, ‘Perceptual-Motor Activities For Children’ you will find more creative ways to improve directionality.

Practical Tips For The Classroom

Sometimes a small adjustment at a child's desk can make a big difference. Below are a few practical tips that can help your child with directional instructions.

• Mark his desk with left and right markers or arrows.

• Place letter and number charts on his desk to help him remember how to form the various symbols when writing.

• Indicate on the paper where your child must start and stop when he needs to read or write an assignment

• Let your child participate in various kinesthetic activities like finger-painting, drawing on a chalkboard, scribbling in the sand, tracing a letter on sanding paper, drawing in shaving foam or tracing a letter or number on a wooden board with the necessary grooves to follow.

• Remove any distractions on your child’s desk and working space.

Further Intervention

If you still notice that your child has problems with direction after you have implemented the above strategies, further assessments and/or interventions may be needed. These assessments will help determine if there is an underlying cause that is hampering your child from building good directionality.

Final Thoughts

We have come to the end of our series of blogs related to body awareness. We trust that you have a better and clearer understanding of each specific stage and that you know what to do to help your child establish good body awareness. As you can see, well-developed body awareness plays such an important role in every facet of a child's life.

Our next blog will focus on visual-perceptual skills. Then we will jump into a brand new series of blogs related to movement.

Until next time, happy moving moments from Kwanda Kinetics!

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