Schema II

My University project coming to an end! I was so happy to receive a book I was waiting for:

Understanding Schemas and Young Children From birth to three
by Frances Atherton and Cathy Nutbrown.

Finally a book, which concentrates on young children and their patterns of play.
It should be read by everyone, who plays with children!

Have you ever given a child a present and noticed she/he is more interested in the box, rather than the toy?

Have you ever noticed a child paint or draw a lovely picture, then cover it completely or folded it?

Have you ever noticed a child who can’t leave a house without a bag full of toys?

Have you ever wondered why children like to look at the spinning washing machine? 

This book will help you to answer the question: Why do children doing things again and again? 

It was great to see an article in this week Nursery World about how to support children and their patterns of play as play needs of two-year-olds are very different to those of three-year-olds!
It aims for practitioners to make sure that settings are offering sufficient opportunities and resources to provide for the common play patterns and schemas of two-year-old children. 

More: Nursery World: Again and again

However, I personally think that we should observe children’s patterns of play even when they are younger and provide some new challenging experiences for them. My project focuses on children from eights months up to twenty four months and I have plenty of evidence to demonstrate how smart those young children really are!

To provide a high quality childcare it’s great to look for those repeated patterns. We should ask parents what their children like doing at home, give children a space when they can throw things or roll things without causing a tensions between each other and to interact with them and at the same time extend their language by using a vocabulary, which fit with their schema.

Last tip: don’t look for new, expensive toys, visit a pound shop, you can find many treasures there to support your child’s play!

This is a bag I created for a child with containing schema – an interest when children are fascinated by spaces that contain objects, materials or people. More info about each schema you can find in my previous post: Schema by brickmum

Schema

You may think that children do lots of random things, however if we observe them closely we can notice many patterns in their play, called schemas. There is a pattern to each individual child’s behaviour, which they use to explore and understand the world.

The best simple description I found:

… pieces of thought… not like the pieces of a jigsaw, because they don’t fit in only one place. Perhaps the best metaphor is that schemas are like pieces of Lego which can be fitted
into lots of different structures—in this instance, the structures… [are] cognitive structures   (Anne Meade, 1995:2).

My schema research inspired me to look closely at children and how practitioners and parents approached children’s learning and development.
My aim is to enable adults to identify and understand what schemas are and how they can plan for and support children’s current patterns of play.
Children may have one very strong schema or a number of schemas called a cluster.

Examples of schemas (adapted from Stella Louis’s book “Again! Again! – understanding schemas in young children”)

– Trajectory – an interest in how objects and people move, and how children can affect that movement (children often likes to run around, throw things, drop things, play with balls, jump, play with running water, building and pushing things in straight lines, draw straight lines)

– Rotation – an interest in things which turn (children often play with wheeled toys, stir, mix, roll balls, play with round objects)

– Enveloping – an interest in covering and wrapping up objects or themselves or in putting things inside bags, baskets and containers (children often hide objects, dress up, paint over pictures they created)

– Enclosing – an interest in creating and/or occupying enclosed spaces. It can be seen in children’s actions as they create structures in which they sometimes enclose themselves or objects (children often play inside boxes, make dens under the table, hide toys underneath bed)

– Connecting – an interest in fastening and joining things together and in taking them apart (children often join things using string or rope, use glue to stick things together, take toys apart, play with trains and tracks)

– Positioning – an interest in carefully placing objects or themselves in patterns or rows (children often line-up toys, walk on lines, have their food laid out in a particular position or pattern)

– Transporting – an interest in moving themselves around and in transporting objects (children often carry bags, push prams, play games that involve going on a journey, explore maps and different means of transport)

More schemas: orientation, core and radial, transforming, scattering, containing, going through a boundary.

You can encourage your children to play by becoming involved and interested in what they are doing. By encouraging them to play, you are encouraging them to learn.
The knowledge of schemas might help you to offer your child something different to play with – something which can be used to practice the same skill safely without causing you get irritated.
Be creative and look for books, songs, which also can extend your child’s pattern of play.

Schema song (by Peter Dixon):
Twinkle, Twinkle
Little splot
I’m into schemas such a lot
I’m into schemas
I’m into it all
The wrappings, the trappings
The rappings the falls
The trolleys with dollies
The binding the straps
The horizontal and vertical
The enclosures and flaps

More to come…