Schemas and ‘Transporting’ in young children

What is a schema? Schemas are patterns of repeated behaviour or actions that allow children to explore and express their developing ideas and thoughts through their play and exploration. The repetitive actions allow children to form meaning in what they are doing. There are many forms of Schema, for example, Transporting (moving things from place to place) Disconnecting (knocking things over or down) Positioning (arranging things in particular ways – patterns and/or organising) and connecting (sticking things together) to name a few.

Children enjoy the repetition that schemas bring to their play. Transporting is a very common schema in children. This is where items they are playing with are being moved from place to place. By repeating things, they are exploring their ideas.

Take an example of a child playing with a China set: a jug, cups and some saucers. The jug is filled with lots of water – right up to the top! Notice next time that you offer this play that your child will spend quite some time focusing on moving the water between the cups and the jug, back and fourth – tipping, pouring and moving the water about. They are looking intently whilst pouring to see how much water is going inside the cup or what might happen! Learning that only a certain amount of water will fit in that cup, so they might tip the water in the cups out onto the table and begin filling them up again, or even move that water to another vessel. This gives children the chance to attempt to problem s

olve. A great skill required throughout so much of their life. And it all begins in their play.

So next time, they might start to fill their jug back up, or dip their fingers into the water filled cupsand move their wet hands over their vessels of play, watching carefully between their fingers and the jug and the water that is being moved from jug to fingers to cup! It gives your child a sense of satisfaction once they figure out and discover that there is more than one way to do something and making working memories of what worked and what didn’t. Transporting and learning through their play is all part of essential brain development.

Your child is learning through play to persevere, and problem solve when they encounter an obstacle in their play, by trying again and repeating practice with their choice of play.  Each time they engage in a transporting schema they are developing working theories that help them to make sense of their world. With repeated transporting they are also learning to be confident, to make decisions and an ability to enquire about how all things work. Transporting is aiding children to develop imagination, curiosity, and a love for investigation. Next time you are playing with your child, watch on curiously and see if you can spot them engaging in a schema.

“Play is the highest form of research” – Albert Einstein