Cognitive Skill

Origami practice seems to be of great benefit to the developing child. From its challenges of concentration and improvement of manual dexterity, to memory recall and creative development, the benefits of origami practice appear intuitively plentiful. It is only recently that these intuitions were explored scientifically. Recent studies affirm the link between origami practice and strengthening of cognitive development within the young mind. The developments in early cognition are two-fold. The first is the improvement of the bi-lateral workings of the brain through hand coordination practice. There is a measurable degree of betterment in inter-hemispheric brain cooperation of children repeatedly engaged in origami. The second is the acquisition and development of certain cognitive strategies like spatial skills and understanding the properties of space.
     Experimentation has shown that the two hemispheres of the brain, the left and the right, are responsible for different manners of thinking. The left hemisphere tends toward logical, sequential, rational, analytical, objective, and partial thinking ---as opposed to the right hemisphere, which prefers random, intuitive, synthesizing, subjective, and holistic thinking. Specifically, the left hemisphere's functions are right-hand control, spoken and written language skills, number skills, reasoning, and scientific skills. The right hemisphere's functions are left-hand control, insight, three dimensional forms, imagination, art and music awareness. For the most part, educational systems favor left-hemisphere-type linear and sequenced processing and information accumulation, while barely acknowledging the aesthetically and creative driven right hemisphere. This is unfortunate because this lopsided education ignores the creative nature of understanding concepts and problem solving. Real-world problem solving requires a developed right hemisphere working in harmony with the logical and analytic left hemisphere. Without a developed right hemisphere, the asymmetrical brain will have a difficult time generating creative solutions.
     An important study on the effects of origami upon bi-lateral development (the development of both hemispheres of the brain) illustrates the specific effects of origami upon cognitive development. The researchers begin by explaining the importance of psychomotor development:
     The psychomotor development of children is closely connected to development of cognitive abilities. In the development of more and more fine, precise movements of the hands, development of conditional-reflex movements with various participation of fingers and palms, reflects not only perfection of motor function of the hand, but also involves the analysis and synthesis of activity of the brain of the child. Research, which has been carried out in the laboratory of Kolstova, convincingly shows that the training of the fingers of a baby accelerates the process of the functional maturing of the brain. The degree of development of fine movements of the hands is correlated with the level of development of speech in children.
     The researchers then explain the testing methods:
     The research was carried out as a training experiment through hardware and test techniques. The inter-hemispheric functional asymmetry of a brain, the activity of hemispheres, the precision of the eye's ability to visualize the perception of spatial parts, the three-dimensional imagination, nonverbal intelligence, speed of thinking and creative thinking were studied. These psychological and psycho-physiological characteristics were measured prior to beginning, during, and after a week of an origami course. The processing of the received data was carried out by standard mathematical methods. The results have shown actual growth of all measured parameters.
     The practice of paper folding, in that neither hand takes dominance (as opposed to such activities as letter writing or drawing), the research asserts, can be invaluable to a developing child:
     The plasticity of a child's brain and minimal domination of one hemisphere above another in childhood is very favorable ground for development of both halves of the brain, for the development of strategy of interaction of both hemispheres revealing abilities of the right and left hemispheres...
The time among the ages of 7-11 years is the most intensive period in development of bimanual coordination. This period is characterized by sensitivity for development of such motor qualities as speed, accuracy and flexibility of movements' coordination. Successful bimanual learning and the realization of bimanual activity is connected to active work of both hemispheres of a brain and their close interaction: activation of numerous cortical areas of the left and right hemispheres, activation of sensory-motor zones and additional motor areas, and calloused and non-calloused commissures.
     More specifically, the coordinated work of both hands, active work of intelligence, and attention is necessary for development and employment of origami, for memory, imagination, and thinking. As both hands are actively involved in work, there is a natural massage of the tips of the fingers, that in turn salutarily affects the dynamic balance of the processes of excitation and braking in the cortical areas of the brain. The spectrum movements of the palm and fingers also extends the impellent (motor) zones of the large hemispheres and are made active. The visual control of the coordinated work of hands raises the activity of the appropriate areas of the cortex. The rich communications of the impellent analyzer with various structures of the brain allow the transfer activity to last. The coordinated work of the hands requires sufficient activity of the brain and harmonious work of its various structures.
     The conclusion of Katrin and Yuri Shumakov in their paper illustrates the specific benefits of origami upon test children:
     Origami stimulates interaction of hemispheres that is reflected in a   complex dynamic mosaic of activity of hemispheres in motor and visual zones of the head brain cortex. It explains actual growth of parameters in nonverbal and verbal spheres occurring on a background of activation of an inter-hemispheric exchange. Origami has allowed motor abilities of both hands to develop, intellectual and creative abilities in children, within the background of various activities of the left and right hemispheres.
     Origami is necessary to use in the programs of development in children 7-11 years old, since this is the age period characterized by sensitivity for development of such motor qualities as speed, flexibility and accuracy of movement coordination. The development of bimanual motor skills causes interaction between the two hemispheres.

     Thus, executed research has shown that origami can be used as a means for the following:
* Activation of the right and left hemispheres of the brain
* Development of fine motor skills in right and left hands
* Development of visual accuracy
* Development of three-dimensional imagination
* Development of nonverbal intelligence
* Activation of creative thinking

     The origami study by Katrin and Yuri Shumakov illustrates the impact of origami practice upon the learning child through the development of bimanual skill, whereby both hemispheres of the brain are stimulated. By cultivating harmony between the two hands, the brain is shaped to develop bilaterally, thereby involving both types of thinking in an activity. As a result, children would be able to maximize their thinking potential by easily accessing manners of thought from both sides of left and right hemispheres: both logical and creative, both sequential and random, both rational and intuitive, both analytical and synthesizing, both objective and subjective, and be able to see both parts and wholes.
     Origami practice can also help children acquire and develop certain cognitive abilities like spatial skills and understanding the properties of space. Research has been done specifically in size comparison strategies of children who have had origami training and those who have not. The results indicate that children repeatedly exposed to origami practice improved their spatial size comparison skills.

     The researchers reference some of the benefits in their paper:
     ...Successful origami requires both spatial skill and an understanding of the properties of space. Thus origami practice might provide children with some cognitive benefits. First, children could learn relationships among shapes. In the course of origami folding, children are exposed repeatedly to squares, rectangles, and triangles. For example, when folded on a midline, a square sheet changes into two rectangles. Children could realize that a square consists of two rectangles. On the other hand, when folded on a diagonal line, a square sheet changes into two triangles, helping children to realize that a square consists of two triangles as well. Second, through origami practice, children could learn relationships among sizes. For example, when a square sheet is folded on a midline, the two resulting rectangles are congruent with each other. That is, the sizes of the two rectangles are the same. However, when the square sheet is folded on a horizontal line not passing through the middle, the two resulting rectangles are different in size: One rectangle is larger than the other.
     ...Another important feature of origami folding, however, is that children can be engaged actively in the construction of meaningful objects, such as a crane, a butterfly, or a chair. Such meaningful activities are intended to facilitate analogical reasoning and the transfer of knowledge across different situations among children. Recent research of analogical reasoning in young children shows that the young children are able to make an analogy, as well as transfer knowledge, if they understand the causal relations on which the analogy is based.

     Not only can young practitioners become able to expand their understanding of the properties of space and improve their spatial thinking through origami, but also develop and improve upon sophisticated cognitive abilities. Origami's tactility and its use of analogy help the child understand the relation between basic concepts and more sophisticated ones.