What, why, where and how do children think? towards a dynamic model of spatial cognition as action

Abstract

The Spatial Cognition in Action (SCA) model described here takes a dynamic systems approach to the biological concept of the Perception-Cognition-Action cycle. This partial descriptive feature based model is theoretically developed and empirically informed by the examination of children's embodied gestures that are rooted in action. The model brings together ecological and corporeal paradigms with evidence from neurobiological and cognitive science research. Such a corporeal approach places the 'action ready body' centre stage. A corpus of gesture repertoires from both neuro-atypical and neuro-typical children has been created from ludic interaction studies. The model is proposed as a dynamic construct for intervention, involving the planning and design of interaction technology for neuro-atypical children's pedagogy and rehabilitation. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.