Children with a trajectory schema enjoy movement. They like to move themselves and to be moved. They're drawn to watching movement and making movement happen. I recently watched my two grandsons at play. Hamish, 2 years 4 month, was pushing a train around a track. Vincent, 6 months younger, was immediately attracted but appeared to disrupt the activity, repeatedly throwing the trains and pushing them away in random directions out of Hamish's reach, and laughing. Vincent has a trajectory schema. Hamish, who likes an enclosed track made an attempt to join Vincent's play. Throwing a train across the room, at which Vincent laughed his approval, but Hamish then returned to his play - throwing doesn't particularly interest him. This illustrates...
Children with this schema will make elaborate farms with animals in fields, gather objects into boxes and other containers and put outlines and borders round their drawings. The railways track will be constructed as a loop, never just a straight line and the duple bricks will be arranged as a wall around the edge of the board. Children with this dominant schema may enjoy emptying spaces/containers as much as creating and filling them. Play ideas: A good selection of farm animals with plenty of fences and gates. Railway and road tracks that can be made as loop, with vehicles of course. Construction toys like lego/duplo, stickle bricks and wooden blocks for making enclosures. At bath time or in a water...
Here's another schema for you to consider. Even the name makes you warm to them. Children with an enveloping schema love to wrap, cover, layer and bandage. They have an urge to envelop and be enveloped. They'd empty out a basket of clean ironing and make a den. You'll find them setting up home under the table with jigsaws, books etc. They'll wrap up anything from parcels to the cat. In the nursery I observed several patterns of behaviour that suggested an enveloping schema: Finding peekaboo hilarious long after others have moved on Reluctance to come out from under the parachute Blocking the play tunnel Making dens with sheets/coats etc and staying in them all morning Dressing up in layer...
