Children’s Lively Minds: Schema Theory Made Visible

Teachers often see repetitive behaviors in toddler and preschool classrooms, such as building and knocking down block towers or dumping out toys. When children do these actions over and over, it can be irritating to teachers and parents, but viewing these actions through the lens of schema theory, developed by Jean Piaget, can help adults understand what’s really going on in children’s brains when they display these repetitive behaviors.

Children’s Lively Minds is filled with stories about real children exploring schema, followed by reflection and questions about what children might be learning. All children develop schema to explain their worlds, whether educators are deliberately supporting them or not.

Readers will recognize many of the behaviors described in the following schemas:

Transporting
Transforming
Trajectory
Rotation and Circularity
Enclosing and Enveloping
Connecting/Disconnecting
Orientation/Perspective

Understanding schema theory and intentionally supporting it can help families and teachers ease frustration with young children’s repetitive behavior and allow adults to better support brain development.