Why does my child do what they do when playing?

Have you ever wondered why:

• your young child seems to wrap up everything from their teddy to a half eaten apple?
• handbags are filled with Lego and the duvet is always off the bed?
• they spend hours climbing up and down a slide in the garden and then jumping off the bedroom furniture?
• you seem to spend an ever increasing amount of time unfastening objects that have been tied together with string, wool strands and scarves?

Welcome to the world of schemas!

A schema is a repeated pattern of behaviour seen when your child is playing. Schemas help build a picture of the world and make sense of how things work. They help your child make connections, grow knowledge and thought, develop skills and solve problems. In their head they are thinking 'Do all things fall down?', 'What happens if?'. Think of schemas as your child's work.

From the moment of birth, children are engaged in a quest to make sense of the world around them. To do this they do not work haphazardly but in a systematic way gathering information through their actions and senses. These early experiences form the foundations for more complex ideas about the world. 

At any one time your child may have a particular schema which they are mainly interested in or they may be exploring a number of different schemas.

Depending on your child's character and how they learn, schemas can appear fleeting or last for a long time. They can be obvious for all to see or hidden and subtle. 

As a parent, you can not teach a schema but by identifying your child's interests you can become a partner in your child's learning by supporting and encouraging their fascinations. 

Schema recognition will influencce how you view you child's behaviour and activity. Your child may be a flitter who moves about, playing with toys and objects only briefly. Watch closely, activities and action which appear random or flitting may be linked. Your child may be fitting different things together into one schema. In contrast your other child may spend long periods of time playing with the same objects or toys, appearing to repeat familiar themes regularly.

As they grow, your child needs to learn boundaries, so understanding their current schema will enable you to redirect some of their play when necessary. A child knocking and dropping apples onto the floor from the kitchen table can be redirected to push teddy, a brick, a piece of play dough, or a ball off the table instead. 

Once you have identified a schema, you can provide toys and materials which will help them explore further. For the child who is exploring the schmea of CONNECTIONS, the gift of a bag of ribbon of different lengths and widths hold exciting possibilities. (Tip: ribbon is easier to untie and remove from the furniture than wool or sticky tape!) 

Commenting on or describing your child's action will support their language development and help them clarify ideas. 

• 'I liked the way you have build a really tall tower, it must be very high up on the top.'
• 'You have wrapped your parcel up very carefully. Who are you going to deliver your parcel to? '
• 'It's spinning round really fast.'
• 'That made a loud bang as it hit the floor!

Modelling language through commenting like this is also a great way of showing your child you are on their wavelength and connecting with them.

How to become a schema spotter and identify your child's learning

Watch your child carefully over a number of days when they are playing independently and see if you can spot a schema.

Here are some schemas you may see: 

TRAJECTORY - throwing items in various directions, dropping and rolling things, moving up and down, climbing up and jumping down, drawing vertical marks on paper.

TRANSFORMING - an interest in materials which change shape, form, colour or consistency such as ice melting, mixing paint, adding water to mud, shaping dough, mixing things together, making potions.

ENVELOPING - object (including themselves) and spaces are completely covered. They may wrap themselves up in sheets, clothes and blankets, wear hats, hide in secret places or under a rug. Wrap up toys, put things in bags so they cannot be seen, make presents, play with pots and boxes with covers or lids. When painting the whole page may be covered with one colour or paint is used to cover up things previously drawn. 

ENCLOSURE - filling and emptying containers, climbing in boxes, making dens, creating borders around objects or themselves. Building enclosures with LEGO or blocks, sometimes naming them as ponds or beds. The enclosures can be filled or left empty. An enclosing line can be seen in paintings and drawings. They often like to draw faces adding features inside.

ORIENTATION - an interest in different viewpoints, handing upside down, turning objects upside down, exploring different heights or positions. 

TRANSPORTING - moving objects or collections of objects from one place to another. They transport toys, themselves or others around in prams and wheelbarrows.

ROTATION - an interest in things that spin or turn such as taps, wheels, cogs or keys. They enjoy rolling and being spun round, playing with wheeled toys, watching the washing machine, rotating their arms, twirling and drawing circles. 

CONNECTION- joining things together, connecting objects, opening and closing things, joining train tracks together, sticking boxes together, joining scrap materials by gluing or sewing, making models using recycled materials, joining furniture often in complex ways using wool and string, joining and linking arms with people. 

A SEPARATION/DISCONNECTION - schema being the opposite, the child will show an interest in disconnecting assembled or joined parts and toys, Building a tower and knocking it down, or watching how things fall apart. 

POSITIONING - an interest in placing objects in particular position for example on top of something, around the edge or behind. Arranging or lining up objects or themselves in a particular way, walking round the edge of things, moving and arranging food. 

Have fun being a schema spotter and let us know how you get on!

Blog author: Sue Tudge - Experienced Early Years Teacher of 35 years and part of the ZestLab Team. If you liked this blog, look out for a follow on one from Sue.

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