10 Te Modern Family Education & schooling Schematic play


Often overlooked behaviours exhibited by babies and toddlers could reveal a lot about how their brain is developing and how best they’ll learn things. Words: Helen Warwick


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Promotional Content • Saturday 21st September 2019


arents, rejoice. Tere’s a good explanation why your little darling loves to launch toys down the stairs, why they pelt


paint across the table, and why they just can’t help leaping off the sofa and whacking the TV with a golf club. No, it’s not down to you being a soft touch and they’re not necessarily badly behaved. It’s all down to phases in brain development completely out of their control — or schemas, a theory initially proposed by Chris Athey in the 1980s and one that’s formed the backbone of early years education. Schemas are essentially natural and


uncontrollable urges a child develops. And it’s not just those acts that drive you bonkers. At the very beginning they’re simple impulses, like sucking toys and grasping labels, progressively increasing in complexity with age. Is your child one of those busy types who loves to stash odds and ends into boxes? Do they fiddle around with wheels or rolling things? Tese are all signs of brain development and behind the impulse, the brain’s


building blocks are creating connections and nurturing learning through repetition, paving the way for the skills to write, drive a car and carry out various tasks in later life. Te thing about schemas is that


once you know how to identify these fundamental patterns of play in toddlers, you can encourage them and help kids get the most out of their explorations, throwing in household objects, toys and outdoorsy adventures. Does your little one climb into


kitchen cupboards or pull the pans out a of drawer and stack them up inside each other? Tey’re showing signs of the Enclosure schema. Rather than wreck your kitchen, the same urge can be fulfilled shuffling in and out of a tent, playing with Russian dolls, or hiding in large boxes. Has your toddler ever been


awestruck at the washing machine? Gazing at the drum going round and round? Tis is all to do with the Circular schema and could result in a temporary obsession with spinning round, large wheels, drawing circles, or whizzing on roundabouts. Ten there’s the Up and Down schema: building tall tower blocks, gawping at aeroplanes, scurrying up climbing frames and lobbing toy soldiers wearing parachutes out of windows. So the next time your toddler


plonks an entire toilet roll down the loo, don’t lose your cool or slap them with the naughty label. Explain what they’ve done wrong and get them to chuck balls into a bucket instead — infinitely more fun than messing around with a toilet. Te world’s a big and complex place


Schematic play PHOTOGRAPH: GETTY Enclosure schema PHOTOGRAPH: GETTY


— embrace schematic play and you’ll help your kids navigate it through learning and development.


InterHigh — the UK’s leading online school T


Finding the right school for your child is one of the most important decisions parents will ever have to make


he one-size-fits-all main- stream education system isn’t suitable for all pupils for many


reasons. Whether it’s because they don’t feel comfortable in a traditional school or they need to find a flexible balance between school and other commitments, InterHigh can provide those learners with a better solution. Since 2005, InterHigh has provided


flexible online education, welcoming thousands of people from all over the world. From primary school to sixth form college, InterHigh supports learners at all stages and offers everything you expect from a tradi- tional


school, with the additional bonus of its specialised learning


platform, bringing school to the student in a way that suits them. Once lessons are over, pupils can enjoy a range of clubs, societies and semi- nars or catch up with friends in the common room sessions or on InterHigh’s very own school social media platform. As a parent, it’s easy to be and


involved follow your


If you’re interest in how InterHigh


School can support you and your child, find out


more at: interhigh.co.uk/ admissions-registration/ book-an-open-day


child’s


progress. Parents are given their own access to the school portal, which provides constant information about their son or daughter’s progress, feed- back and assignments. Tis is supple- mented by regular written feedback from all their teachers.


Find out more at: interhigh.co.uk or call +44 (0)1873 813900


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