Description
Understanding Play Schemas Course. A play schema refers to the repetitive patterns of behaviour that children display as they explore and understand the world around them. These schemas are fundamental to early childhood development, helping children develop cognitive, physical, and social skills.
Common Types of Play Schemas
1. Trajectory Schema – Children enjoy moving objects or themselves in straight lines, arcs, or drops (e.g., throwing balls, pushing cars, running back and forth).
2. Transporting Schema – Children like to carry objects from one place to another (e.g., filling and moving buckets, pushing a stroller).
3. Enclosing Schema – Children create enclosures around objects or themselves (e.g., drawing circles, building fences with blocks).
4. Enveloping Schema – Involves covering or wrapping objects or themselves (e.g., wrapping toys in fabric, hiding under blankets).
5. Rotation Schema – A fascination with things that spin or rotate (e.g., turning wheels, spinning around, playing with tops).
6. Connecting Schema – A focus on linking things together or taking them apart (e.g., building with LEGO, tying ropes, sticking things together).
7. Positioning Schema – An interest in arranging objects in a particular order (e.g., lining up toys, organizing items symmetrically).
8. Orientation Schema – Exploring different perspectives by looking at things upside down or from different angles (e.g., hanging upside down, tilting the head).
9. Transforming Schema – Changing the state of objects (e.g., mixing colors, playing with water and sand, cooking pretend food).
This Understanding Play Schemas course can help parents and educators support children’s learning by providing activities that align with their interests.
- It’s important to understand the play schema that the child you care for is engaged in so you can help to extend the play, facilitate games and activities that include this type of play in different environments, support problem solving through play, and know and understand what interests that child
- This course makes suggestions for games, activities, toys, and resources matched to each type of play schema
- Learning is delivered through a tutorial video, reading resources, presentations, external resources (which have been verified and quality checked), and a knowledge sharing video on the importance of play for children
You can view all of our short CPD courses here.
