Abstract:

Orientation in space and plane is important not only for mathematics, but also for other fields of human activity and also for practical life. That is why it is necessary to develop it already in preschool age. The most suitable period is the fifth to sixth year of age, when it is useful to give children many stimuli to play with blocks, building blocks, and even themed games.

An experiment was carried out in the Czech Republic with children aged 5 to 6. Its aim was to determine the success rate of children in performing spatial orientation activities. Ten tasks were designed, which focused on orientation on one's own body and on the body of another, on the ability to distinguish the concepts of first, last, middle, just before, just after, between, on distinguishing directions to the right and to the left, on the use of prepositions and on the development of spatial memory for the past and the future. Transformations from plane to space and from space to plane were also included. In particular, the observation method was used during the experiment. The children solved each task based on manipulation or sensory perception without using their eyesight. Based on the evaluation of the individual tasks, it was found that 70% of the respondents mastered the orientation on their own body, and 80% of the respondents mastered the orientation on the other's body. The terms first, last, middle, just before, just after, between were correctly distinguished by 70% of the children, the directions to the right and to the left by 85% of the children. 80% of respondents correctly used prepositions, 63% of the children had already developed spatial memory for the past, and 100% of children had spatial memory for the future.

The respondents appeared to be the best at spatial memory tasks for the future, with spatial memory tasks for the past posing the greatest problems. Therefore, we should focus more on spatial memory tasks for the past in Czech kindergartens.

Keywords:

Orientation in space, kindergarten, spatial memory for the past, spatial memory for the future.