Schemas

[Marion]

Funnily enough we had a parent came in this morning worried her son might be autistic because he lines everything up in rows so had plenty of information on schemas to show her.

[Steve]

Hi Rea et al. -

Just to let you know that we've recently published an article and overview on schemas which, if you've not got there already, you can find here

[Rea]

Thanks, will read it later

[Guest]

Thanks Steve this is brilliant information for my study - bedtime reading!

[Guest]

Does this help - from the introduction to a set of booklets, one for each of the 4 main schemas, that we made on an OCN schema course last year?

 

WHAT ARE SCHEMAS?

 

A SCHEMA is simply a PATTERN OF BEHAVIOUR

When you watch children’s natural actions and investigations you notice that their behaviour is not random. There is a pattern to each individual child’s behaviour. We call this pattern in behaviour “schemas”

Parents / carers and teachers can often identify these patterns of behaviour or schemas by looking closely at what children are doing.

 

Parents often comment or ask questions about the “odd” and sometimes annoying things that their children do. For example:

 

• Why push a pram around with nothing in?

• Why post objects into video recorders etc?

• Why tip toys out of boxes or scatter things off tables?

• Why is their child tying toys / people together?

• Why do children prefer to play inside cardboard boxes, want to hide under their beds or make dens under tables?

• Why do they want to wrap everything up, sometimes even themselves?

• Why does their child continually climb onto things and jump off again?

• Why do some children have a fascination with running water and flood the bathroom?

• Why do some children line objects up in a row when others make towers with everything?

 

By understanding a child’s schema/s we can begin to make sense of these “odd” and sometimes annoying behaviours

 

CHILDREN’S INTERESTS

 

Some children have one very clear schema; other children may have a number of schemas called “clusters”

 

By knowing which schema your child is interested in you can begin to make sense of what your child is doing. It can help you to understand:

 

• Why your child is more interested in the cardboard box than the toy it contained (enclosure schema)

• Why a ball of wool worth £1.00 is better to spend your money on than a £100 toy (connection schema)

• Why you can never find your car keys because your child has posted them somewhere (enclosure schema)

• Why your child is always in the bathroom causing a flood (trajectory schema)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Why your child always wants to sweep or Hoover the carpet (trajectory schema)

• Why your child is more interested in watching the washing machine than watching the television. (rotational schema)

• Why your child runs around being a superhero (transporting schema)

• Why your child moves things from one place to another for no apparent reason (transporting schema)

 

At Pre School we use schemas as an observation tool. We can plan activities to meet children’s needs.

 

To support children’s schemas we prioritise the use of recycled and natural materials.

 

Curtailing a child’s schema may inhibit his / her foundation for learning

Inhibiting a child’s schema may also impair their ability to reach a goal.

 

Oh, sorry, forgot to take the graphics out. Anyway, if it helps I can pm you the full booklet/s. Sounds like it's the trajectory one you'd be looking at.

 

Hello I am doing a foundation degree and researching schemas would it be possible to have a look at a copy of your leafelets please. thank you

[Guest]

Hello I am new to this and woundered if I could have a look at your leafelets please thank you

[wellerkaren]

thank you this is just what i needed for a essay i need to write over the summer, i would also love to read the leflet