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Have you ever noticed how children are not afraid to get something wrong? For example, when your cheeky toddler argues with you that the sky is red, but you could have sworn it was blue last time you checked? This same principal can be applied to early childhood development in creativity. Young children aren’t worried about getting things wrong in order to create something different in their play. This makes for an excellent means for building upon brain development.
Children use these ‘creativity skills’ to develop what their brains need to be working on at the time. You can imagine that when children are born, they are born with a ‘clean slate’ in terms of learning how their world works. They have so many ‘firsts’ in their young lives that their brain needs to continue to build on top of these ‘firsts’ in order to understand what is happening around them. The more ‘firsts’ your child experiences, the more understanding they will have about their world.
Sometimes you may notice that your child is compelled to play in a certain and repeated way. When children are seen to play in a repeated way, it could mean your child is engaged in a ‘schema’. Schemas are repeated ways in which a child can focus on a set skill that their brains are interested in developing. For example, when a child repeatedly lines up their toys, they aren’t merely playing, but they are also working out how the world works around them in a sensory and methodical way. As parents and carers, we are able to take notice of a child interests and engagements to help scaffold learning and aid children in gathering information about their worlds.
CONNETIX is one of those tools that allow children to develop these skills. Magnetic tiles are an excellent tool for discovering through play, and there are so many ways to play with this versatile resource. One example of this, is cause and effect. Cause and effect is all about discovering what happens as a result of an action, such as building up and knocking down. There are so many questions their undeveloped brains are answering by building and knocking down. For example, if they build up a tower and knock it down, will it fall down? What if they build it up a different way, will it fall the same way? And, if they push it a little harder next time, what happens then?
Have you noticed the different ways in which your child likes to play? Maybe next time you see them playing independently you can sit and watch them for a while. What do you notice? They may be working within a certain schema, or more than one schema. Take a look below at the early childhood schemas, which have been coined by developmental psychologists. You may notice your child chooses to work within one or many. Under each schema you will find CONNETIX activities they may enjoy to further these skills and interests.
Do you notice your child moving objects from one place to another?
If your child enjoys doing this, they may enjoy:
Do you notice your child putting toys or themselves inside of things (such as tunnels, boxes or fences)?
If your child enjoys doing this, they may enjoy:
Do you notice your child throwing things (even when they know they aren’t allowed to throw a certain object)?
If your child enjoys doing this, they may enjoy:
Do you notice your child rotating themselves or objects (such as a tap on and off or spinning around)?
If your child enjoys doing this, they may enjoy:
Do you notice your child joining items together (such as gluing or tying things together, putting blocks together and taking them apart)?
If your child enjoys doing this, they may enjoy:
Do you notice your child covering or hiding themselves or objects (putting objects into bags)?
If your child enjoys doing this, they may enjoy:
Do you notice your child turning themselves upside down or looking from a different perspective?
If your child enjoys doing this, they may enjoy:
Do you notice your child mixing things together (such as sand and water)?
If your child enjoys doing this, they may enjoy:
Do you notice your child ordering and lining up objects?
If your child enjoys doing this, they may enjoy:
I hope this helped you gain some in depth understanding about how and why your child plays. My children and myself are big fans of CONNETIX, we use them every day in our play. I hope you find them as inspiring and educational as we have! Thank you for reading and happy building!
Frankie is a primary school teacher and literacy specialist, with a Masters in early literacy development. She is a passionate mother to three children and the creative mum at @wonder.and.awe on Instagram.