German word that means ‘one who thinks with their hands’. It was a single word, I can not recall it. Any ideas?

Question

A presenter in Zurich said a word in German that meant ‘one who thinks with their hands’. It was a single word I believe, I can not recall it. It may be particular to the Swiss. Any ideas?

Answer 1

The term »mit den Händen denken« ("thinking with hands") is not very common. The most websites that deal with it are from Switzerland.

Sources:

• Title of a creative workshop
  This seems to be an exception, because the association that offers this workshop is from Bavaria.
• Article about a Swiss film director
• Exhibition of a Swiss designer

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There are theories about how some people learn the easiest way, and these theories define different learning types:

• People who belong to the auditive learning type learn best when they hear something
• the visual learning type needs to see something
• the communicative learning type must talk with others to learn
• the haptic learning type must touch things

There are also some other types in discussion (the motor type must walk, etc.), and all these theories are heavily discussed because some researchers have found evidence, that this all might just be an illusion.

However, the point is: There is a haptic type, and in German this is:

ein haptischer Typ

This is a person that needs to touch things with their hands to better understand them. So this is what you might call a person who thinks with their hands. If you want to have just one word for it, then it is:

Haptiker

This is a correct word, but it is rare.