WHAT ARE PLAY SCHEMAS AND WHY DO THEY MATTER?

Have you ever noticed your child performing certain repeated actions or patterns of behavior? You may recall your children purposely dropping toys, filling up bags and boxes, hiding, and throwing away the food around different parts of your home. Well, these kinds of behavioral patterns are called ‘schemas’ which help in the natural development of your child’s brain. So, this can mean that your child is engaging in schematic play.

WHAT IS ‘SCHEMATIC PLAY’?

Schematic Play occurs when infants, toddlers, and young children engage in repetitive activities or specific behaviors as they explore their environment and attempt to understand how things work. Once the child has grasped the idea of a schema, the repetitive activity of the schema allows them to practice and build meaning.

Some of the #play #schemas that you might have noticed in your child are explained below. As you continue reading, you'll recall some of the times your child was practicing their schema.

Connecting Schema

Connecting things involves putting them together. It might mean taping objects together, putting Lego or Lego bricks together, or connecting railroad tracks. This can also refer to a process of connection followed by separation, such as building a fortress before destroying it.

Enveloping Schema

A very obvious pattern is "enveloping," in which kids cover things or themselves. This could seem like hiding your keys in a cabinet, wrapping toys in paper, covering dolls with fabric, playing peek-a-boo with silks, or crawling into boxes or kitchen drawers.

Enclosing Schema

Here, children show interest in enclosed spaces. It may involve connecting items to build a fence or drawing circles around objects.

Positioning Schema

Positioning involves lining up toys, arranging objects in a particular sequence, sorting books, flipping cups upside down, or worrying excessively about where things should be placed.

Rotation Schema

Rotation involves rolling, turning, and twisting. In general, children who are examining this schema may benefit from objects that have wheels, spinning, playing ring-a- rosy, riding a bike in circles, or using screwdrivers.

Trajectory Schema

The trajectory schema, which incorporates dropping, tossing, kicking, and swinging objects, is arguably the most troublesome one. This schema may cause a youngster to drop food at the table, fling toys, kick people or objects, like swinging or enjoy dumping stuff into containers.

This is one of the earliest schemas observed in babies as they are fascinated with how they and objects move.

Transporting Schema

Kids like continually shifting things from one location to another. They will use their hands, pockets, containers, baskets, or transporters to carry numerous items at once. Transporting involves moving objects from one place to another.

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WHY DO THEY MATTER?

Play Schemas can be considered as necessary urges that all children at some point may have. Very young children benefit from opportunities to repeat and practice different actions as this helps in their overall growing stage.

Through schema play, infants learn by using their bodies. They learn about trajectory—going from A to B—through the simple act of traveling from one place to another. Schemas help children make sense of the world. They allow us to predict what will happen next based on experience and due to this fact, young children may find it difficult to understand cause-and-effect relationships.?

Before we experience something for ourselves, we cannot understand how it functions. And when we are infants, the only experiences we have are those that occur inside our mother's body. A child's universe is continually expanding as they learn new things and try to understand how everything fits together. So try to engage them in meaningful activities and let them do whatever they wish as that will indicate their development and growth.