When one of my daughters was small, she used to climb everything! She would climb on toys to get up the back of the sofa and then roll down onto the cushions. At the beach, she’d find cliffs or big rocks and try to scale them. In the supermarket she once climbed a gigantic pile …
Is your child going through the stage when they want to tip everything out? Do they seem to tip over anything and everything in their path? You might find this hard to believe, but the answer to get them through this stage quickly is to provide lots more filling and emptying activities in as many …
My two-year-old nephew visited me recently. Within seconds he’d managed to tip the cat’s water and food bowl up, and while I dealt with that, he tipped all the shoes off the shoe rack and emptied my recycled food waste container on the floor for good measure! It felt like I was under siege! But …
Ever wondered why some young children seemed fascinated in wrapping up objects? Or you might have kids that love burying things or hiding objects out of sight? It’s called an enveloping schema, and it’s one of the most common schemas that you will witness in young children. An enveloping schema is a child’s interest in …
Do you have children that enjoy tipping everything out of baskets? Or a kid that likes spreading objects all over the place with their hands, arms, or feet? It is highly likely that these children are demonstrating a scattering schema. A scattering schema is not one of the more commonly talked about schemas, but nevertheless …
Schemas are repeated patterns of behavior that children exhibit in their play. There are nine schemas that are understood to be the most common in children’s play. These are: Trajectory Transformation Transporting Rotation Positioning Orientation Enveloping Enclosure Connection In this post, I’ll give you a brief overview of each of these 9 schemas. I’ll talk …
Orientation schemas are when children are interested in learning about how objects look from different angles. Do you have a child that enjoys lying with their head on the floor as they play with toy cars? Or like to look through their legs at things? These are both orientation schema behaviors in action. Rotation schemas …
Ever wondered why some young children seem to spend a huge amount of time and effort in placing objects in a line side by side? It’s called a positioning schema, and it’s a very common behavior that you will see often. A positioning schema is when a child is interested in experimenting with order and …
Rotation schemas are really common, and many children exhibit this repeating behavior pattern. I’ve taught in the early childhood phase for 12 years, and in that time I have trained myself to first look out for schemas, and second to act on them. Rotation schemas can be supported through so many different activities – whether …