Play Schema, Sensitive Periods, and Picking Materials as a Montessori Parent

Children are so fascinating for a lot of reasons! But one of the things that I find particularly fascinating about young children is all the different ways that they interact with the world. Play is an important part in how all children learn, explore, and master their environment. Maria Montessori was clear that a child's work is their play, and their play is their work. As Montessori parents we need to value how our children play and work to understand their play. 

For me, an important part of understanding my children's play has come from learning more about play schema. Schema are a patterns of play that children use in order to understand the world around them. In very basic terms, play schema are "the how." How are children choosing to use materials? How are children processing their sensorial input? How are children exploring the materials in the environment? How are the children moving in the environment? Often play schema provide the answers to these questions. 

In general, children tend to move in and out of phases with play schema throughout their childhood. Even without changing the play materials in their space, children may gravitate towards using the material differently depending on which play schema is most attractive to them at the moment. While all children engage in schematic play, it is most easily observable with babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. 

I'm not going to get super in-depth here but generally there are eight schemas including: transporting, enveloping, orientation, enclosing, positioning, rotation, trajectory, and connection. I'm going to use a common Montessori baby toy - the object permanence box - to illustrate these common schema. 

Transporting: moving objects from one place to another. Might look like a new walker that is only interested in carrying the box from one place to another. Could also look like a baby that pushes the box 

Enveloping: covering items or themselves. Might look like sitting on the box, or hiding it under a blanket. 

Orientation: an interest in looking at things from different viewpoints. This could look like looking at the bottom or back of the box as the ball is dropped. Or flipping the box over and over again. 

Enclosing: basically putting things (or themselves) in other things (a boundary.) For the object permanence box this might look like blocking the hole so the ball needs to stay in the box. 

Positioning: an interest in where things are in the world, putting things in specific place. This could look like taking the box to a specific place to work, or becoming upset if it is moved. 

Rotation: turning or rotating themselves or objects. This could look like rolling the ball in their hands, or spinning with the box/ball. Could be hitting the box so that it spins. 

Trajectory: watching objects move away from themselves. Often this looks like an intense interest in throwing the ball. 

Connection: joining objects together. Could look like lining up the box with other materials in the environment. 

Now, if you're as big of a Montessori nerd as I am, then maybe you're thinking - "but what about the sensitive periods? I thought they heavily influenced a child's interests and play." And, that is true. The sensitive periods are a child's deeper developmental drive. Again, in super basic terms, where the play schema are the how, the sensitive periods are the "why." Why does a baby work over and over again on learning to move their body - because of the sensitive period for movement. But, how they are choosing to move might be very different. 

An example from my own kids - Gus and Nora. Both highly motivated to move! Gus, loved vehicles and moving things. So he would often be found pushing things around the room and then eventually carrying them as he moved. His why was the sensitive period for movement, his how was the transporting schema. Nora, on the other hand, loved to throw. Even when she could only sit, she would throw, then eventually chase what she had thrown. Her why was the sensitive period for movement, her how was trajectory schema. 

Now, putting it all together! As Montessori parents we need to be aware of both our children's favorite play schema and our children's sensitive periods when choosing the materials that might be most interesting to them at home. 

For example, recently Ted (my newly 5-year-old) had a huge explosion in interest in letters and letter sounds for reading. But, it was hard for him and not quite clicking with the materials we had, so I wanted to add something in our environment. Before I did that I sat down to observe his play. I understood his why - sensitive period for language, especially reading, was hitting strong. Then, I needed to understand the how. 

As Montessori parents, our biggest strength when it comes to understanding the play schema is our power of observation. Through our observation, we can understand which schema our children are most interested in and which they aren't exploring at the moment. These observations can help us more deeply understand why a child is using a material a certain way, help us check our own reactions to their play, and inform our decisions when choosing the materials that are available in the environment. 

So back to Ted, I observed with him that he was very into connecting schema. He was building long lines of things with LEGO. He was using play silks to tie things together. He as gravitating toward all of our toys that had a connection component. Now, I knew the how - connection schema. So I got reading materials (these cubes) that had a connection component. And, bam, it's a hit! 

So when you're observing your child's play, look for both clues of the sensitive periods and for their favorite current play schema. It could be one, it could be multiple. Understanding these developmental principles can help you better understand your child and how you can support them as a Montessori parent.