Have you ever wondered why your child knocks down a sandcastle the moment you take the bucket away, would rather play with the box a gift came in rather than the present itself or pour their juice into their pasta and mix it all together?
Yes?
There’s a strong possibility your child’s engaging in schematic play.
What Is Schematic Play?
Schematic play (pronounced SKI-MAT-IK). What does it even mean? When we break it down, scheme refers to repetitive thoughts or actions. Add in play, and we can define schematic play as…
Repetitive actions or behaviours that allow children to explore things and develop skills through play. These behaviours or actions are being acted out by your child because they have had some kind of experience and these behaviors or actions help your child make sense of the experience. For example, your child may have seen the leaves falling from the trees so then goes to pick some up and throws them around.
Or as your child empties the entire carton of cereal onto the table for the umpteenth time, it's easy to think your child’s being a pain in the proverbial, but doing this action repeatedly is part of their development and learning.
They’re exploring the concept of one thing being contained within another and the relationship between in and out or empty and full. An empty shoe box with a few toys inside is a great alternative and will save your cereal from being upended time and time again.
Some of the Schemes of Schematic Play
Schemes, not schema, are the building blocks of your child’s development and learning.
Here are some common schemes of Schematic Play;
1. Trajectory
Children love to watch things move, and the trajectory scheme is one of the earliest seen in young infants. Your little one pushes food off their highchair and watches it fall; you pick it up and put it back. They push it off and watch it fall; you pick it up and put it back, and so it continues in a never-ending cascade of peas and sweetcorn.
2. Positioning
Sorting, stacking and lining up are all common signs of the positioning scheme. Your toddler might become obsessed with helping you sort the laundry, using pillows to build tumbling towers, or lining up perfectly positioned Lego figures ready to defend themselves against the soles of your bare feet.
3. Enveloping
The enveloping scheme is all about covering things up; whether that’s rearranging the furniture to make a den they can play under, covering every inch of their tray in yoghurt, hiding the TV remote under a pile of paper or wrapping themselves up in a duvet like a caterpillar in a cocoon.
4. Rotating
When exploring the rotating scheme, your child will take great pleasure in turning the taps on and off, making spirals with long strands of ribbon, taking the tops off bottles and screwing them tight again, riding their bikes in circles and spinning on the spot until they feel dizzy and fall over.
5. Enclosing
If you last saw your car keys, glasses or mobile phone in your toddler’s hands, you’ll usually find them in a box or wrapped up. This is typical of the enclosing scheme. Your child may also use blocks, books or cushions to create walls around things or themselves, marking out clearly defined areas.
6. Transporting
During the transporting scheme, your child will move everything and anything they can. The movement of a toy car back and forth that makes tracks in the carpet, pockets stuffed with stones that get piled on the coffee table, and cuddly indoor toys
pushed around the garden in a muddy wheelbarrow.
7. Connecting
Mega Bloks, train sets and stickle bricks are firm favourites in the connecting scheme, as well as using sticky tape and glue. Each allows your child to find out how things fit together and build something bigger and better, which is great for enhancing their fine motor and creativity skills.
8. Transforming
In this scheme, your child is developing an understanding of how to change the appearance of something. They might decide to give Barbie a makeover with a lopsided bob, mix all the Play-Doh into a sludgy brown or disassemble their favourite toy - often not realising that their actions are permanent.
9. Orienteering
Don’t panic; the orienteering scheme doesn’t mean your toddler is going on a hike armed only with a map and compass. It means that they’ll explore more exciting movements such as roly-polies, swinging from monkey bars and climbing the backs of sofas.
The Benefits Of Schematic Play
Repetitive actions such as throwing a comforter from their buggy, removing all the tissues from a box or messing up your carefully made bed to build a fort can be a little irritating. It can help you stay calm by knowing why all this schematic play is good for your child…
- Cognitive Development - the repeated patterns of schematic play will help your child’s brain to create a roadmap of how things work.
- Emotional development - schematic play allows your child to experience feelings such as anticipation and frustration and learn self-regulation.
- Social development - your child's listening, attention and sharing skills are all enhanced through schematic play with others.
- Language development - engaging with your child’s schematic play by talking out loud about it helps them make sense of things and broadens their vocabulary.
How To Support Schematic Play
When you support your child with their schematic play, it’s important to be led by them rather than take over, unless they’re in danger. What you see happening in front of you can be different to what’s going on inside their heads.
For example, your child might have done some amazing handprints that you immediately think will make a good keepsake, but before you have time to take the paper away, they paint over them and fill the page with a swampy green colour.
They haven’t done it to spoil things for you; the thought probably didn’t even cross their mind. What they’re doing is exploring the chief characteristic of the enveloping scheme, which is to cover things up.
Think outside the box to come up with a solution for situations like this. Something like a quick photo will allow you to print loads of copies of the image you want to cherish. Perfect for personalised Christmas gifts!
Talking about boxes, a great way to help your child is to look for opportunities and create a foundation for schematic play.
Just bought a new pair of shoes? Keep the box (enclosing schema).
Hanging out the washing? Ask them to help pass it (connecting schema).
Need to wash hands? Let them turn the taps on (rotating schema).
Supporting schematic play can easily be a part of everyday life. You don’t need to overcomplicate things.
Schematic Play In Our Nurseries
At Hopes & Dreams, our trained staff can spot and support children with schematic play.
We provide lots of opportunities throughout the day for your child to explore and develop various schemes both inside the setting through arts and crafts, various toys and role play, and outdoors through free play, physical activities and nature play.
As well as being great for their schematic development, nature play has many other wonderful benefits for your child. Find out what they are here…
