spatial awareness and puzzles/patterns

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Can someone tell me what it's like to have visual-spatial issues? My son was really good at puzzles, building train sets, etc. but had trouble with patterns at school? Is it a different concept? I don't understand why the difference in ability. He also doesn't walking on open-backed steps or climbing on those rope bridge things.

i know it doesn't seem like it to you, but most of the things you mentioned all deal with a different aspect of spatial awareness.....looking at a pattern on a piece of paper is GREATLY different than trying to judge the space between steps..and frankly, as an NT, I won't even go on one of those rope bridges...
my son could spend hours stacking Legos into patterned towers. but he couldn't figure out some of the pattern elements of math.

I'm not a parent & am not sure if this is relevant, but...(as an adult w/AS) I've noticed I can deal with 2-dimensional but not with 3-dimensional. I'm artsy, I can think & draw in 2-D, though 3-D stuff I have no idea what to do with. Patterns that are flat are easy to decipher, but patterns that are "in space" are too baffling to negotiate. Coping in 3-D space takes additional skills, such as vestibular & proprioceptive senses. Handling 2-D areas is less demanding & less intimidating, for me. One can get vertigo, be afraid of heights, feel insecure when one's feet are off the ground-I dislike stairs w/o risers & ladders, they're scary.

I think part of the problem with the patterns is he's being asked to recreate them (moderately complex) on his paper, by coloring in the shapes. He can put things together with no problem, but maybe it's getting lost in the processing...

And I do understand about the open steps, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if he got some of his quirks from me. Or was it Dad?

I have problems with two dimensional stuff. Even cartesian coordinate planes I think of in three dimensional space. Multiple times I would turn in homework/tests where coordinates were given in the format of (x,y,0)!

To me, it just seems like there is a componet missing when you are only dealing with 2 dimensions, like trying to read a piece of paper flapping in the wind. By giving it another dimension I anchor it spatially, so I can deal with it like a single, firm entity.

I have to rebuild all two dimensional problems to be three dimensional, in my head.