Schemas

How do you decide what toys your child will play with? So often parents say that they bought their child a new toy and soon after presenting it to the child, they are no longer interested in playing with it. Or you see someone post an activity on Instagram or Pinterest that looks amazing for a 19 month old but when you try it out on your own child, they have no interest in it at all. Why is that??? It can definitely be frustrating but there is a reason for this!

As an educator and a mom, I found one of the most useful practices to understanding a student/child is to sit and spend some time observing how they play and what kind of activities they gravitate towards. Once you familiarize yourself with the different schemas you will clearly see which one your child is in and then from there, you can plan and bring out toys/activities that are related to that schemas and watch your child be engaged! Also, keep in mind that children at the same age can be and most likely are going through different schemas.

So what are schemas??

A schema is something a child goes through naturally and happens at different stages of their development and at different times for each child. Schemas are repeated patterns of behaviour and urges that children go through in order to learn and explore their environment. They repeat this behaviour to master and understand it. And this all happens right at birth. For example, babies all go through the stages of sucking and grasping. The schemas and complexity of the schemas increase as your child gets older. As children develop they continue to build and add to each schema which also carries on into adulthood.

When we as parents/educators/caregivers begin to understand schemas we can successfully pair an activity with their schema to extend their learning and further deepen their learning. Remember that your child will not necessarily go through ALL the schemas and they could also could be going through more than one at a given time.

So what are you looking for when you are observing your child?? Here are the major schemas that a child will go through and what to look for:

1. Containment: putting things and themselves in some type of container/box

   • filling containers with water/sand/objects

   • putting themselves in boxes

   • putting items in bags/boxes

   • shape sorting activities

2. Enveloping: covering themselves or objects

   • wrapping toys in scarves or blankets

   • covering themselves in scarves, blankets or cloths

   • covering their hands in paint

   • hiding or getting inside of objects

   • playing peek a boo

3. Orientation: seeing things from a different perspective and vantage point

   • hanging upside down

   • being under things

   • looking through their legs and doing downward dog (yoga) poses

   • climbing up on things to see something at a different vantage point

4. Positioning: keeping things tidy and in particular order

   • lining up their toys

   • cleaning up

   • sort/order their toys according to shape, size or color

   • keeping their food separate and not having any of them touch

   • sitting in a specific place

5. Rotational: fascination with things that goes around and is circular

   • wheels and spinning toys

   • turning lids

   • spin and turn themselves around

   • watching the washing machine spin around

   • drawing circles

6. Trajectory: interacting with things that are already moving, moving their bodies and objects

   • throwing their toys and food

   • moving their toys in a straight line

   • fascination with running water

   • likes to run, jump and climb

7. Transformation: experimenting by mixing things together and changing the state of objects

   • mixing colors altogether

   • enjoys baking and mixing ingredients together

   • dressing themselves up

   • pouring their drink in to their food

8. Transporting: involves a lot movement of themselves and toys

   • moving toys from one area to another

   • pushing a toy shopping cart/wagon

   • carrying many things at once

   • collecting objects/toys

9. Connecting: building, connecting and demolishing

   1. building with lego/duplo

   2. connecting puzzles and train tracks

   3. building things and then destroying it after and the putting it back together again

   4. gluing and tying things together

Now that you have determined what schema your child is in, how do you plan your activities and toy rotation around this?

Stay tuned for my next blog about: Now I know what schema my child is in. What do I do next??