In this episode of The Gestalt Get-Together, host Corinne Zmoos, MS, CCC-SLP, talks with Kelsie Olds, OTR/L, known as “The Occuplaytional Therapist,” about schema play and the ways autistic children and gestalt language processors (GLPs) may use repeated patterns of play to learn about their world.
Corinne and Kelsie discuss eight common play schemas: connecting, orienting, transporting, trajectory, positioning, enveloping, enclosing, and rotation. Through examples, Kelsie explains how behaviors that adults may view as challenging or “bad” can actually reflect a child experimenting with objects, cause and effect, movement, space, and their environment.
The episode also looks at what these patterns can tell us about a child’s interests and development, and how recognizing schema play can help clinicians better understand and support a child’s play rather than redirecting it. Corinne and Kelsie connect these early play experiences to the development of skills children can build on throughout everyday life.
Corinne and Kelsie discuss eight common play schemas: connecting, orienting, transporting, trajectory, positioning, enveloping, enclosing, and rotation. Through examples, Kelsie explains how behaviors that adults may view as challenging or “bad” can actually reflect a child experimenting with objects, cause and effect, movement, space, and their environment.
The episode also looks at what these patterns can tell us about a child’s interests and development, and how recognizing schema play can help clinicians better understand and support a child’s play rather than redirecting it. Corinne and Kelsie connect these early play experiences to the development of skills children can build on throughout everyday life.
