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Schema Play Theory as a Lens on Development
December 18, 2023
To program learning often means to hamper it by restricting children to the stereotyped anticipations of the programmer.
-Frances Hawkins, 1913-2006, teacher and author
-Frances Hawkins, 1913-2006, teacher and author
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"There was a four-year-old boy in our center. He was very much following one of the schemas called ‘enclosing and enveloping schema.’ We saw it repeatedly throughout his whole day. He would build the giant pillows into a little cave that he could sit inside and be enclosed. One of the painting games he loved was when I wrote his name on the paper and he would paint over it. I would write his name again and he would paint over it. And that was part of that enclosing and enveloping exploration. He had one suitcase that he loved to fill and carry things around in… There was no rhyme or reason what was in the suitcase but he wanted things in it and closed and locked. When he played with playdough, he would flatten the playdough and put some toy or prop inside of it and close the playdough up around it. So, we were constantly seeing him closing things in." Bernt-Santy goes on to say that if you are a parent or educator who is unaware of this lens of examining children’s play, then many of these behaviors can appear random or useless. But as you learn to identify the schemas, children’s play can become really fascinating and exciting. Lawrence affirmed this, "You don’t know what you are seeing unless you know what you are seeing. These schemas allow you to filter behaviors and apply them to what you understand about development." |
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